


i just can't keep you too far from my thoughts

by halleluzayn



Category: One Direction (Band), Zayn Malik (Musician)
Genre: M/M, Solo Artist Harry, University Student Louis, YouTube, YouTuber Liam, YouTuber Niall, Youtuber Zayn
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-11-25
Updated: 2015-11-25
Packaged: 2018-04-28 06:25:26
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 28,183
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5081101
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/halleluzayn/pseuds/halleluzayn
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Harry’s eyes widen and his jaw drops before his mouth breaks out in a grin as he turns to Liam, who’s now burying his face on his hands. “Are you serious?” He punches Liam’s arm lightly, but it still makes Liam move a bit. “He said ‘yes’ to your unofficial announcement for a collab?”</p><p>Liam looks up from his hands and nods. “Yeah, he did.”</p><p>Harry literally bounces on his seat as he starts firing questions. “So, when it is happening?” He asks. “I need to clear up my schedule then so I can witness a blossoming love story firsthand.” He teases.</p><p>Niall cackles. “I’m right with ya there, Haz.” He smirks at Liam. “If you’re busy when it happens, I’ll even videotape everything for you.” This earns him a whoop and a high five from Harry.</p><p>(Or the YouTuber AU fic where Zayn is <i>not</i> a beauty vlogger, Liam types like an over excited teenage girl, Louis is a Harry Styles fanboy, Harry is basically Ed Sheeran, and Niall is Liam's video editor that <i>really</i> needs to get laid already)</p>
            </blockquote>





	i just can't keep you too far from my thoughts

**Author's Note:**

> hiii i've got a new fic that i just finished on the day before the deadline ao3 gave me lol
> 
> umm so from my last fic i've said LOTS OF THINGS HAVE HAPPENED RIGHT and a lot of things have happened since then which is why i've decided to take, like, two weeks?? off tumblr and twitter lmao i'm so stressed out i don't even wanna look at one direction's faces right now, and that includes zayn because he gives me more stress. in a good way. but i'm still stressed as shit.
> 
> pics are not mine. i also forgot where i got them lmao but i do know!!! one of the pics there of "zayn and liam being seen out" (spoiler!!!!!!!) is actually harry lol
> 
> anyway. yeah, it's a youtuber au!!! i wrote this a year ago?? and decided to revive it a few months ago and then edited it after a couple of months and then yeah. please be warned there are pictures at the bottom!! idk they're not dirty pictures but you know, just a warning.
> 
> this au is actually inspired by the one of my fav tumblr blogs because she made a whole youtuber 'verse but zayn is a girl there and liam has a kid but yeah check it [out](http://sashayed.tumblr.com/tagged/vlog-direction).
> 
> title is from the mowgli's "shake me up".

“… _and make sure to subscribe there._ ” He points at his top left, “ _And check out some of Harry’s covers. I’ve put a link on the description box below._ ” He points downward. Both Liam and Harry wave, “ _And I’ll see you all next week. Bye!_ ”

Niall gives him a thumb up. He stops the recording and Harry looks over at him, shaking his head with fond, “I don’t know how you do it Payne.”

Liam stands up from his computer chair and rolls it back to its original place, “What?”

Harry cracks a smile. “It’s like I’m interviewed all the time but I’m still not comfortable being in front of the camera. But you, you’re just so natural. It’s just…” He then lets out a dreamy sigh. “You’re amazing mate.”

Liam lets out a laugh and puts his hands up. “Stop right there, Styles or you might just start confessing your secret undying love for me.”

Harry snorts. “Oh sod off, Payne.” He walks over to Niall, who is just sat on the chair and setting up the videos, “Besides, Niall is my true love.” He goes to hug Niall who just pushes his face away from him.

“Just because you’re an international pop sensation does not mean you can do that.” Niall grumbles as he starts to load the video on the computer and opens up the editing video software.

Liam peers over him as he starts to select videos, “Hey Niall, do you want to be in my next video?” He asks, walks over then sits on his bed, and looks over as Niall starts typing out the starting title of the video.

“Sure.” Niall answers but sounds too out of it to know what he just agreed to.

“I thought you were gonna do a collab with that other YouTuber.” Harry asks.

Liam shrugs, lying his back down on the bed and letting out a tired groan. “Yeah, well Jade had to cancel.” He looks at Harry, who’s furrowing his eyebrows, asking to ‘please elaborate’. “She said it’s because of some stuff for Uni.” Then he remembers the hurried tone and apology from Jade on Skype last night. “…I think.”

“Why can’t she just drop out like we did?” Niall asks with his eyes still on the computer. He curses and when the mouse starts moving again, he sighs in relief. “Like working full-time making videos and actually getting paid a massive amount for it?”

Liam shrugs again, “I don’t know with her but I bet it has something to do with her girlfriend.”

“Ah, that Perrie girl who got a crush on you before she and Jade started dating?” Harry asks and Liam nods. He sits next to Liam on the bed. “What’s the video supposed to be about? Maybe I can help.”

“We were gonna do a make-up thing.” Liam explains and laughs when Harry shakes his head in a ‘thanks but never mind’ way.

“My Boyfriend Does My Make-Up?” Niall asks before he saves his unfinished editing and then closes the program. He spins in the computer chair to look at his friends.

Liam shakes his head, “My _Best Friend_ Does My Make-Up is what she wanted, actually.”

“Are you two even best friends?” Harry asks looking quite scandalized at what Liam is saying about his stand with Jade. “I thought I was your best friend.”

“She’s my _YouTube_ best friend.”

Niall snorts. “So what the fuck am I then? We became best friends when I invited you to do a cover video with me, you tit.”

“You’re my YouTube _brother_.”

Niall cackles. “Bullshit.”

“But are you still up for it?” Harry asks, changing the subject, as he fishes out his phone when he heard a faint buzzing sound. He reads the text before he starts to reply. It must be a message from his management.

“Maybe…” He backtracks. “I don’t know. I mean, it’d be fun to put make-up on someone for a change.” He says. He remembers all the times that his sisters would dress him up in dresses and would put their mother’s make up on him.

He feels a buzz in his pocket and pulls his phone out. He sees a notification from his manager. He snorts himself; he still can’t believe he has a manager. Anyway, he opens the email and reads it.

“What is it?” Harry asks, pocketing his phone and peering over to read at it.

Liam looks at his two friends. “My manager just sent me my official invite for the annual YouTuber convention.”’

Niall gets off his seat and throws himself on the bed next to him and then pats him stomach. “Aye, that’s amazing mate! I just got mine this morning, actually.”

Harry scoffs and rolls his eyes. “Well, this is a downer.”

“Eh, I guess there is a downside to being an international pop sensation than a YouTuber, huh?” Liam teases and yelps when Harry whacks him on the face with a pillow. “Hey, I was just kidding! Oh, come on, Haz.” He grabs a pillow before Harry can whack him again. “Didn’t you say you had this thing you’re doing in Los Angeles, too?” Harry nods. “So that’s okay! You can still come with us! You can even have your manager book a room in the same hotel as us.”

Harry grins and rubs the spot he hit Liam with and using the other hand to slap his forehead in a ‘duh’ motion. “Oh yeah, you’re right. Thanks for the reminder.” He looks over at Niall and glares at him. “I’m mad at you.”

Niall chuckles and shrugs. “Don’t care.” Harry gasps, grabbing a pillow from Liam before he can stop him and starts whacking it on Niall instead.

*********

“ _…and that’s it for today._ ” Zayn says, grinning at the screen and looks over at Louis, who’s glaring at him. He chuckles and pinches his cheek, “ _Aw, come on Louis. You look great in mascara._ ” He teases while Louis huffs and slaps his hand away. “ _Say goodbye to everyone Louis._ ” Louis turns to the screen, stands up, and walks out of the frame shot. That leaves Zayn to laugh. “ _Hey Lou, come back!_ ” He stretches his arms in a ‘come on, I’m just kidding’ gesture. He laughs again before he turns to look at the camera lens. “ _Alright guys, I need to go now. I’ll see you all next week with an all-new video. Make sure to subscribe and whatnot and I’ll see you guys next week._ ” He winks and he presses the stop button his little remote and the recording stops.

“I would’ve punched you right now if I didn’t realize how my eyes _do_ pop.” Louis points out. He walks to the bathroom to clean off the make-up with the make-up remover Zayn always has in handy.

Zayn laughs before walking over to his laptop and opens up his YouTube homepage. Louis walks back in, face finally clean of make-up and leans over Zayn’s shoulder. “Oh look, Payno has a new video.” Zayn looks at him. “What?” He asks. “Everyone calls him Payno. That’s why his YouTube name is ‘LeemoPayno’! Now fuck off and let’s watch the video. I saw Harry Styles on that little thumbnail.”

Zayn shakes his head before reading the title. “It’s a question and answer video with the two of them.” He clicks the video, pressing ‘skip’ on the ad and waits for the actual video to come up.

“Well, isn’t that amazing?” Zayn can hear the sarcasm in Louis’ question as he rolls a computer chair next to Zayn and sits down on it. “I hope they answered my question.”

“Wait, you know they were gonna do—” He shakes his head. Of course, his best friend is such a Harry Styles fangirl, it’s so ridiculous. “What question did you ask?”

Louis shrugs. “I just asked if Harry’s dating that model, Cara Delvine or whatever the hell her name is.” Zayn looks at him and he just waves him off. “Piss off.”

Finally, the video starts.

“ _Hi Guys!_ ” Liam waves at the screen with his ever-gorgeous smile. “ _So, judging by the title, I guess you already know what the video is about. So, without further ado, let me welcome here my best friend, Harry Styles._ ” He claps his hands and says off-screen, “ _Niall, you wanker. Clap your hands._ ” He demands as Harry saunters in, sitting on the chair beside Liam. “ _Alright so today we’re answering some interesting questions about Harry, me and our friendship. So let’s get started!_ ” He says before the video cuts to a tweet at the bottom of the screen and them answering it.

“You like this guy don’t you?” Louis asks Zayn, his eyes flickering over to him as Harry answers.

Zayn blushes. “He’s great. Well, I mean, he makes ace videos.”

“Oh, come off it Malik.” Louis rolls his eyes, eyes on the screen to see if his tweet will pop up. “I saw you watching all his videos that one time. I remember it was four in the morning and I was walking past the living room to get a glass of water. Then I saw you giggling and watching that video of him sky diving in Dubai.” He side eyes him as if challenging him to ‘correct me if I’m wrong but you’re gone for him’.

Zayn grumbles. “I just wanted to see what’s so great about him, alright? I’ve gotten tweets about him that he and I should do a collab since we live in the same city. And I wanted to see if he’s a boring sod or not.”

“And you got more than great.” Louis waves his hand, his eyes now on him. “You got fantastic _and_ killer abs.” Zayn opens his eyes, about to deny anything about _that_ but Louis fixes him with a look. “I’m a hundred percent sure you watched _all_ his videos especially the Bali video.” He winks.

Zayn lets out a whiny ‘eh’ before he holds his hand up to silence him. “Now shut up and let’s just watch the video. Harry’s answering that question you wanted him to answer.”

Louis’ eyes widen, his head whipping to look at the computer screen so fast that Zayn winces. “WHAT,” He shouts. He presses the volume to hear the video and sure enough on the screen are his Twitter name and his tweet, “OH MY GOD.”

“ _Alright… so Louis Tommo asks – hey, wait, isn’t this Zayn Malik’s friend?_ ” Liam asks. He's looking off-cam and he nods along to the person he’s talking to. “ _Yeah, that fit guy who does make-up videos?_ ” His eyes widen with the realization at what he said. “ _Oh my, God, you better cut that out Niall_.” He glares at him and waves a dismissive hand. “ _Okay, let’s just read his question._ ” He looks at Harry. “ _He’s Zayn Malik’s friend by the way. You know him right?_ ” Harry nods. “ _He wants to know if you’re dating Cara. He misspelled her last name and it’s spelled... bad._ ”

“ _He spelled it as Dickvine_.”

Liam glares off-cam again. “ _Niall, shut up!_ ” He chastises and looks over at Harry. “ _Well Hazza? Are you and Cara just friends or is there something Niall and I should know?_ ”

Harry flashes his famous dimpled grin. That's the reason why half the world is falling at their feet for him – especially Louis. He answers with a, “ _Well Louis, I am not dating Cara Delevigne. She is just a close friend of mine and if you’re up to date with the news, you’d know she’s dating someone else._ ” He grins and winks at the camera.

Zayn presses ‘pause’ on the video and looks over at Louis, “Louis?” Louis stands up and walks out of his room. “Lou?”He calls out with worry seeping in as Louis walks out, closing the door behind him. He’s about to stand to console him when not more than five seconds later, Zayn hears a shriek of delight and a smash.

He shakes his head and presses ‘play’ on the video. “ _Plus, Harry is extra gay_.” Liam confirms. “ _Now, on to another question… and it’s for me._ ” He grins as the tweet appears on the screen. “ _So PaynosBiggestFanO from Tumblr, I love the user by the way. They want to know if I’m single. It’s because I’ve been tweeting back and forth with Jade Thirwall’s friend Perrie Edwards. And that I posted a pic of me with her and Jade having dinner at Nando’s._ ”

Zayn doesn’t realize he’s held his breath after that. He’s followed Liam on Twitter. Because he’s a fellow YouTuber, duh, and not because he wants to know what the hell he does every day. _Thank you Louis_. So he knows who Perrie is and if he’s being honest, he’s gotten curious as well. He has pictures of them posted by Perrie, Jade or Liam himself with them hanging out. And the two would always have pictures like they’re having a blast… almost like a couple.

And before he can come up with his own conclusion…

He realizes that _not only_ has he been pondering about a guy _he does not have a crush on_ but he’s also paused he video.

So he presses ‘play’ again and Liam continues talking.

Liam nods and then shakes his head. “ _The nod means ‘I understood the question’ but the shaking of my head means ‘no Perrie and I aren’t dating. We’re just great friends’._ ” He laughs and Zayn doesn’t realize, or did but won’t admit, that he lets out a sigh of relief that Liam is, in fact, single. “ _Okay another question for me. It’s from LeemoMalik – from Twitter – and she wants to know if I’m planning on having a collab with Zayn Malik._ ”

Zayn’s eyes widen at the mention of his name.

He looks at Harry and shrugs before looking at the camera with that adorable smile of his. “ _I should have known you’d ask about Zayn from you username. Well… to answer your question, I would love to have a collab with Mr. Zayn Malik. He’s particularly known on the interweb,_ ” He ignores Harry rolling his eyes and mouthing ‘interweb?’ at the camera and continues talking. “ _…as the guy who does ace make-up videos and what’s-in-my-bag videos and I have to admit; I’ve bought some of the products he’s recommended on his videos. Kudos to you, Mr. Malik! But yeah,_ ” He shrugs. “ _We’ve never talked, to be honest? But Zayn, if you’re watching this, give me a ring and we can discuss a collab, yeah? What do you say?_ ” He smiles and waves before moving on to another question.

Zayn lets the video continue playing until both Liam and Harry say goodbye. Liam tells everyone to subscribe nd to check out Harry’s tour diaries. He leans back against his eat and thinks, _holy shit Liam Payne wants to do a fucking video with me._ He runs his hand down his face and looks back at the screen as the video auto plays to another video of Liam which, of course, is the Bali video and sees the start of the video with Liam shirtless and in a pair of swim trunks and waving at the camera. He groans, buries his face in his hands. _Damn it, how could I ever be near with someone like that, especially if he wants to do a collaboration video with me?_ And he guesses he could decline but _Liam_ or whatever the hell he even means.

He sighs. He supposes he should talk to someone about this. He thinks about Louis. But judging by the glass shattering and the plate smashing and oh, the shrieking…

He thinks _maybe later_.

***********  
**

“For God’s sakes Niall,” Liam whines. “I told you to cut out that part where I said Zayn Malik was fit!” Niall ignores him as he continues to spin on the computer chair. “Niall, are we even listening to me?”

Niall stops and sighs. “Li, that video has gotten a million views in less than two days – all because I included that clip.”

“ _No_ ,” Liam presses for the umpteenth time, blush blossoms his cheeks. “It’s gotten a lot of hits because Harry denied dating Cara _and_ because Harry’s there.” Liam says matter-of-factly.

Niall scoffs. “Then why are majority of the comments saying they want you and Zayn to do a collab and how they both ‘ship’ you?” He smirks while Liam grumbles. He wants to smack him but its _Niall_ so he doesn’t have the willpower to do it. So he just results to walking out of his room instead with Niall’s cackles following. He looks over at the desk and sees Liam’s phone lighting up and vibrating. He shrugs, picks it up, and looks at the first part of the message. A big wide grin breaks out of his pale and cherubic face and he shouts. “Liam! Liam! Come back here! You’ve got a message!”

Liam rushes in, looking flushed. “What? Why? Is it important?” He looks down at his phone in Niall’s hand.

Niall nods and passes him his phone. “Oh, it’s important alright!” He adds.

Liam furrows his eyebrows and unlocks his phone and his eyes widen. “It’s from Zayn Malik.” He gapes, stares at the unknown number and the first part of the message.

“Well?” Niall asks, hopping on his seat like a little kid waiting for a desert and pushing him on his hip. “What does it say?” He screeches.

“Well?” Niall asks again, pushes him hard on his hip after Liam reads the message to him with a dazed expression on his face. “What are you waiting for? Reply, you boob!” He insists, pushing Liam’s shoulder next.

Liam turns to him and raises his eyebrow. “You’re more excited than I am. Are you sure you don’t want to do a collab with him instead?”

“Of course not, I’m not the one in love with him,” He rolls his eyes and then pushes Liam’s shoulder again, “Now reply!”

Liam ignores his first comment and grumbles a, “Fine.”

_ _

“God, you sent two kisses! You’re already proper whipped, mate.” Niall teases.

Liam pushes his shoulder. “Shut up.” He walks away as blush creeps up his cheeks and ignores Niall’s loud and teasing laughter.

*********

“Thank you so much for having me on your show.” Harry says in to the phone, “Yeah… alright, bye!” He trails the ‘e’ before the radio announcer says goodbye as well and both of them hang up. He sighs and places his phone down and looks up as he hears Liam and Niall walk inside the room.

Liam flops next to Harry on the couch. “So, how’d the interview go?”

Harry gives a one shoulder shrug. “Good, as usual. Radio interviews are better than normal face-to-face interview though.” He comments before saying, “But hey, they asked me about the video.” Liam straightens up at that information. “They basically had me clear the Cara rumors again.” He shakes his head. “Then they just told me she’s dating somebody else and I was like ‘yeah I know that’. It was proper awkward like I think they were expecting me to at least hear how sad I am about Cara being taken.” He rolls his eyes. “I mean, I like radio interviews but damn, I was about to hang up the phone if I’m being honest.”

Niall sighs and gives him a ‘what can you do?’ shrug. “Interviews, man. Some are brutal, some are just plain boring. You’ll never get an in between.”

Harry snorts. “You’re one to talk. Didn’t you make a ten part series on interviewing every one of your YouTuber friends?”

Niall rolls his eyes. “ _Yeah_ , but I wasn’t all ‘ _oh hey are you dating someone?_ ’ I just took the piss out of them and made them drink blended vegetables I made and say stuff like how amazing I am and shit like that.”

Harry laughs and leans his head back against the head rest. “You are the future, Horan.”

Niall lifts a finger up as if he’d remembered something, and he must’ve. “Speaking of the future,” He turns to Liam with a mischievous glint in his eyes, making Liam groan. “Liam here is going to be spending a lot time with a Mr. Zayn Malik.”

Harry’s eyes widen and his jaw drops before his mouth breaks out in a grin as he turns to Liam, who’s now burying his face on his hands. “Are you serious?” He punches Liam’s arm lightly, but it still makes Liam move a bit. “He said ‘yes’ to your unofficial announcement for a collab?”

Liam looks up from his hands and nods. “Yeah, he did.”

Harry literally bounces on his seat as he starts firing questions. “So, when it is happening?” He asks. “I need to clear up my schedule then so I can witness a blossoming love story firsthand.” He teases.

Niall cackles. “I’m right with ya there, Haz.” He smirks at Liam. “If you’re busy when it happens, I’ll even videotape everything for you.” This earns him a whoop and a high five from Harry.

Liam groans and shakes his head before he buries his face on his hands again. “Why am I even friends with you guys?” His voice muffled as he asks.

*********

“Are you sure I’m even allowed to come?” Louis asks _again_ as the taxi starts driving away from their flat.

Zayn sighs. “Yes Louis. I asked Liam if I can bring you along and he said it was totally fine. Plus he actually insisted I bring you.” Then he grumbles. “I don’t know why. I think I’m good enough as a company alone.”

Louis rolls his eyes. “You’re just mad I’m cock blocking.” Before Zayn can confirm or deny, he speaks again with eyebrows furrowed in confusion. “But why would he even insist on inviting me? We don’t even –” His eyes widen in realization. Zayn notices him pause and looks over at him and sees his state and grows worried when he notices how Louis’ face starts to pale, as if scared. Louis snaps his head to the rearview mirror where the driver’s eyes keep flickering over to him with worry as well. He snaps out of it and turns to Zayn. “He fucking invited me because Harry’s gonna be there as well!” He shouts.

Zayn sighs in relief; finding out his best friend is just being dramatic again. “Louis, please…”

Louis waves at the driver through the mirror. “Stop the cab, please.”

Zayn’s eyes widen. “Louis, we aren’t even…” He sighs as the cab stops. “Please keep going, my best friend is just being dramatic.” The driver nods and continues to drive. He turns to Louis and glares. “Louis, seriously stop alright? Harry’s not going to be there and even if he was, Liam’s invited you because he wanted to and like I said _if_ he is there then just avoid him.”

Louis looks at him as if he just told him something stupid and by the looks of it, he thinks Louis did. “I can’t _just_ avoid him!” He shouts again; Zayn shoots apologetic looks at the driver. “We’re all going to be in the same flat! It’s not possible and I’m still so embarrassed about the thing I asked in their last video. I asked that because I know I won’t be seeing him personally but this changes everything! He now knows who I am and what if he’s mad I asked something so personal?  I even insulted his friend’s last name for goodness sake!”

Before Zayn can calm him down though, the cab has stopped. Zayn pays the driver, adding another extra bill for the outburst of stopping the cab Louis did earlier. He lightly pushes Louis off the cab and he looks up at the building in front of them. “Fancy.”

“Zayn, is that you?” a voice with an Irish accent calls and asks. Both of them look at the front door of the complex and he sees a skinny, blonde boy donned in a loose tank top, boxer shorts, a pair of socks with what seems to be drawings of anchors on it and a snapback on his head. “Hey, it’s me, Niall.” He introduces himself.

“Yeah mate. We know you.” Louis says, stretching his arm to shake hands with Niall but Niall snorts and pulls him in to a crushing hug instead. Both of them pull off as Louis grins. “Big fan, by the way – love the covers and prank videos.”

Now it was Niall’s turn to grin. “Thanks mate. Nice to know someone actually appreciates my prank videos.” He laughs. “So the lads are upstairs setting up for your collab and baking some cookies and they asked me to come down here and wait for you guys and pick you up.”

Louis’ eyes widen as he exchanges a look with Zayn and then looks back at Niall. “Wait, ‘the lads’?”

Niall nods. “Uh-huh, Haz and Li – all of us are gonna be in that collab of yours.” He turns to Zayn. “You knew that right?” Zayn nods and he looks at Louis.

“I didn’t.” He grits his teeth, glaring at Zayn, who just gives him a small and apologetic smile.

*********

“Liam, please.” Harry whines, setting a plate filled with freshly-baked cookies on the coffee table. “Can you put the phone down for a second and help me bring in the tea? Plus it’s ‘lots of’ not ‘lotsa’, you illiterate dick.”

Liam furrows his bushy eyebrows at him and juts out his bottom lip in a pout. “You’re an asshole.”

“And you’re giving me a headache.” Harry grumbles. “Just help me bring the tea.”

Liam pockets his phone and goes in to the kitchen to help when both of them hear the door open and hear Niall’s voice say, “You can put your shoes right there next to Liam’s. Ugh, Haz’s a neat freak and would flip if he saw us walking around the flat in our shoes.”

Harry glares at where Niall will be coming in from. “I heard that, Horan.”

“You were supposed to, you wanker!” Niall shouts and then, “See? Touring around the country for three months and suddenly he decides he’s man of the house.” Harry rolls his eyes half-heartedly.

Suddenly, Niall comes in with two people trailing behind him and stretches his arms out. “Hello people! I introduce to you Mr. Zayn Malik and Mr. Louis Tomlinson!” He pats his stomach to make an impromptu drumming sound.

Liam grins and walks up to Zayn and offer his hand. “Hi Zayn, it’s nice to finally meet you.” _God, you’re so pretty._

Zayn smiles back and shakes his hand. “Likewise, and this is my pal Louis.” He gestures to Louis, who’s looking _anywhere_ but at Harry.

Liam turns to Harry – who’s looking at Louis with amusement. “Hi Louis,” Louis gives him a small wave. “And this is Harry. Harry, come on. Say ‘hi’.”

Harry rolls his eyes. “I’m not a toddler, Liam.” Before he steps forward and grabs Louis’ hand, startling the boy a bit, with both of his big hands and shakes it very enthusiastically. “Hi Louis, it’s nice to finally meet you.”

Louis’ face flushes red as he nods slowly, looking down shyly as well. “Same.”

Harry grins at Louis’ actions and pulls away to shake Zayn’s hand with his eyes flickering over to Louis. “Hi Zayn, it’s nice to meet you as well. I love your videos, by the way.”

Zayn looks surprised. “You watch them?”

Harry nods. “Oh yeah, of course, mate. Anyway, would you two like some tea?” Both of the boys nod. “How about you two wait here and eat some cookies – they’re fresh, by the way help yourself to some – and we’ll bring the tea in a few minutes.” He says and both boys don’t even have the courage to decline as they slowly take their seats on the couch and watch as Harry drags Liam to help him round up the tea.

*********

“I was actually thinking of doing a question and answer video for the both of us, you know?” Zayn suggested. “Get my viewers to know you and vice versa. But then,” He takes a bite off the piece of cookie he grabbed from the plate. “I forgot this was a secret collab.” He chuckles and then asks, “Why is this collab a secret again?”

“Because,” Liam starts and then he falls silent as if the reason why this was a secret falling off his mind so he furrows his eyebrows, thinking _why_ and Zayn _does not_ find that adorable or even worth paying attention to so he divert his elsewhere but then Liam grabs his attention again by actually finding a reason, “it’s a surprise for the viewers!” He snaps his fingers and he can’t help but break in to a smile because _damn it, that’s cute._ “Yeah,” He nods to himself, accepting the reason, “especially since the collab we’re doing in my channel is basically all five of us doing a cover, right?”

“If it’s a cover then it’s supposed to be on my channel.” Niall casually comments, swiping the last cookie off the plate before Harry can grab it and _not_ give it to Louis, who was eyeing it, thank you very much.

Liam gives him a half-hearted glare. “I do cover videos too, Niall.”

Zayn nods. “Yeah, I’ve seen those. You’re a really good singer.”

And he _almost breaks_ , seeing the flush that covers Liam’s cheek down to his neck and maybe _down_ some more as he smiles at Zayn. “Thanks.”

“Hey.” Harry says, bringing all the attention – well Louis’ attention was on him from the start anyway – to him. He snaps his fingers and points at Liam. “Weren’t you supposed to do a ‘My Boyfriend Does My Make-Up’ with Jade?”

Zayn frowns. “You have a girlfriend? I thought –”

Liam glares at Harry. “It’s _best friend_ , Haz. I told you that a bunch of times.” Harry shrugs innocently but Liam knows better and sees the slight twitch of a smirk on his lips. He turns to Zayn and shakes his head really fast, he feels like he could get whiplash but that’s okay – just to get the frown off his face. “Jade is _not_ my girlfriend.” He presses. “She’s dating Perrie.” He smiles, seeing the relief slowly wash over Zayn before he explains further. “But yeah, we were supposed to do a collab together too.”

Harry nods. “Yeah, well how about you do the video with Zayn instead?” He suggests and then says, “Since he’s also technically a beauty vlogger.”

Zayn groans out loud. “I did only like _two_ videos about beauty stuff. I’m _not_ a beauty vlogger.”

Harry shrugs. “Fine, you’re not a beauty vlogger _but_ you do have the knowledge about make-up and stuff, right?” Zayn nods. “And I saw your last video where Louis was in drag, mate.” Louis flushes. “It was ace and I know you did that.” He points out. “So…” He looks at Zayn then at Liam, “what do you think?”

Zayn purses his lips before he sighs and nods. “Yeah, alright, I’m cool with it.”

Liam snorts. “Easy for you to say, you’re not the one who’s gonna get his face caked up.” Then he looks at Zayn and then at Harry, who’s giving him an encouraging smile, then at Louis and then at Niall and then back at Zayn. Finally, he nods but not before letting out a sigh and a, “Yeah, sure why not?”

It was Harry who started whooping. “Oh man, this is going to be amazing!” He says, laughing out loud and ruffles Niall’s hair. “Imagine Liam in make-up. Oh my god, this is going to be classic!” He continues laughing, eventually falling off the couch but still laughing and Liam groans, leaning against the couch.

“Do you have your make-up stuff with you?” Liam finally asks. _Better embrace this, I guess._

“They’re actually my sister’s but no, I don’t have them with me.” Zayn laughs. “I just have the lip balm because sometimes my lips get dry.” Liam avoids looking at lips as he continues to talk. “But I can run back and get them.”

“You’re okay with that?”

Zayn nods. “Yeah mate, it’s totally cool. We’re like a few blocks away from each other. I’ll just take the cab.”

Harry shakes his head. “Nope, you’re not. I’m calling my driver and helping you pick up the stuff you need.”

Zayn’s eyes widen at the offer. “Harry, that’s not necessary –”

Harry shakes his head again as he starts dialing a number on his phone, probably his driver. “It _is_ necessary.” He looks at Zayn with a teasing glint on his eyes. “You’re going to be making our Liam pretty, it’s the least we can do for you.”

Liam groans and Zayn nods, a grin on his face. “Sure, thanks.”

*********

“Don’t spoil it!” Liam hisses at Harry as they wait for Zayn to return. “They’re gonna realize what’s happening!”

“No they won’t.” Harry rolls his eyes then looks at Louis, who’s sitting meekly beside him, “Right Lou?”

Louis snaps his head to look at him and immediately nods, “Yeah.”

Harry tilts his head while looking at him, “Louis, are you okay?”

Louis nods quickly, “Yeah, I’m god – I mean good. Sorry.”

“Hey, while we wait for Zayn, how about we play something?” Harry offers. “You play piano right?” Louis nods. “I have a piano in my bedroom. Play something for me.” Before Louis can say anything, Harry stands up and grabs his hand, dragging him off to the bedroom.

Niall snorts. “They’ll doing something else than playing piano.”

Zayn soon comes in, carrying a make-up kit with him. He huffs as he puts it down on the coffee table, “Remind me to put this in a paper bag when I get out. People were giving me stares.” He sighs and opens the kit, revealing a few make-up products Liam has seen Zayn pull out to use on Louis in his videos. “Hey, where’s Lou?”

“He’s playing piano in Harry’s bedroom.” Niall says, reaching over to snag another cookie.

Zayn looks at him weirdly before saying, “If that’s your way of saying they’re having sex then…”

“No.” Liam shakes his head quickly, “They’re not… doing anything. I mean they are but not like that. Harry has a piano in his room and he’s having Louis play something for him.” He explains quickly.

Zayn nods in understanding, “Oh. Well Louis _is_ a screamer so.” He shrugs and sits next to Liam and lays out the products.

“I did not need to know that.” Niall says, standing up, “Excuse me. I’ll just go next door.” He mutters before exiting the room.

Liam laughs, “I think you scared him.” Zayn shrugs in response and continues taking out products. “So we’re really doing this?”

Zayn looks at him, “Well, yeah. I mean if you’re suddenly backing out now I might have to punch you since you could’ve just said it earlier and didn’t have to make me go back to my flat to get these.”

Liam chuckles, nodding, “Yeah, I understand. Sorry for even suggesting that,” he shakes his head, “proper stupid.”

“It’s not stupid.” Zayn offers him a smile and stands up, “So who goes first?”

“Well since Louis and Harry are _not_ having sex and Niall just went out. I think we should go with your video first.” Liam says, standing up and jogging down to his room. “C’mere. We’re doing the video in my room.” Zayn’s eyes widen before he nods, before realizing Liam’s not here, and gathers his stuff again and hurries towards Liam’s bedroom.

*********

“ _Okay so Liam has pretty eyes so I think we’re going to use a little of this eye shadow right here. Is this color alright with you, Liam?_ ”

“ _I don’t really know, to be honest. Since you’re good at this, you can just go ahead and do anything._ ” Zayn gives him a smile as he chuckles before saying, “ _Just don’t make me look like a clown._ ”

“ _I promise_.” Zayn smirks as he applies eye shadow on Liam’s eyelids and Liam’s heart tries not to flutter too much and his stomach tries not to twist a bit because damn it, they’re on camera right now and he can _not_ have them retaking this again.

*********

“I knew you’d look like a beautiful girl.” Harry beams as Liam and Zayn exit his room and Liam starts walking to the bathroom while Zayn flops down next to Niall on the couch.

“Shut up.” is the only thing Liam says before they hear the sound of running water.

“Make sure to use the make-up remover I gave you!” Zayn shouts then Liam shouts an ‘okay’.

“So, how was it?” Louis asks, leaning on the armrest of the couch, seeming more comfortable and at home than when they got here where he was all panicky and whatnot.

Zayn shrugs, “The usual but unlike you, he doesn’t squirm whenever I apply the mascara.”

“Shit, Li has mascara on?” Niall shouts and stands up, rushing over to the bathroom. “Let me see!”

“What the fuck Niall? Get out of here!” They hear Liam shout.

But then Niall just says, “Holy shit Liam, you look so pretty in mascara!”

“Stop that! Get out of here, damn it.” The only response they get back is Niall’s laughter as he walks back in the living room and returns to his seat. Minutes later, Liam comes back, wiping his face with a towel and sits on the huge space in between Louis and Harry and stretches his arm around the headrest.

“I actually propose that the next time you do a video with someone dressed in drag, I think we should contact Liam instead.” Louis says, lifting his head up from the armrest to look at all of them.

Liam groans, “Can we not talk about this? This is going to be put up on the internet soon I don’t want to think about the embarrassment yet.”

Zayn frowns, “You could’ve just said ‘no’ if you didn’t want to. I wasn’t, like, forcing you or anything.”

Liam looks at him and his face falls seeing the frown on Zayn’s face, “What? Oh. Zayn, I didn’t mean it like that. It’s just that I…” he trails off, frown deepening as Zayn just looks at him with _hurt_ , “I’m just kidding, okay? I didn’t mean to, like, offend you or anything.”

Zayn gives him a half-smile, “It’s alright. I’m just overreacting. Louis was like that when we did the first video of him in make-up.”

“And now I’m okay and used to it.” Louis says. “Although it can get annoying that his fans tweet me about blush and foundation that would look ‘great on my skin tone’.” He uses air quotes, rolling his eyes, “Annoying, really.”

 “Please,” Zayn scoffs, a hint of a smile playing on his lips. “I totally saw that Chap Stick one of them tweeted to you that _you retweeted_ two months ago in our bathroom.”

“It was vanilla flavored!” Louis argues, fully ignoring the strange looks from their new friends (he’d like to think they are considering of the fun things they’ve done in the past hours plus, come on, if Harry Styles bakes you cookies you’d think that’s an invitation for friendship – or a mating call, whichever works) and half-heartedly glaring at his best friend. “You know how I like vanilla!”

“Yeah, I do,” Zayn says and Louis shakes his head, noticing the hint of sarcasm in his tone, “I’ve heard you moaning it a bunch of times every time you bring a boy in to our flat and shag him senseless in your room.” And just continues half-heartedly glaring and smirking at each other despite Niall snorting, Liam coughing and Harry choking.

“Okay!” Niall claps his hands loudly, breaking the somewhat argument between the two friends, “So Liam’s video. Let’s get a work on that!”

*********

“This is the first video uploaded that I’m in that’s making me very excited.” Harry says as they all sit in Liam’s room – Liam’s computer and Zayn’s laptop on – as they wait for the uploading process to be done.

It’s been days since the making of their collab. Louis and Zayn went home after filming Liam’s collab and a few days later, Zayn texted him to ask if he wants to upload their videos together.

By then, they’re busying themselves by playing Mario Kart.

“My voice didn’t, like, crack or anything right?” Zayn asks worriedly but eyes still focused on the screen as he keeps pressing buttons.

Liam smiles and looks at him briefly before turning his attention back to the game, “Of course not. You actually did it perfectly. I did a little of those arrow things with words on them and pointed them at you during your parts.” Zayn chuckles, “I didn’t know you could sing.”

The game ends with Niall’s character winning and he celebrates by running to the kitchen to get himself a beer. Zayn looks over at Liam and shakes his head, “Yeah and that’s the last time they’ll hear me sing.”

“What? Why?” Liam asks, frowning as he leans against his bed, controller in his lap.

Zayn shrugs, “I’m not actually confident in my singing voice, that’s all. I already get shit about my accent I don’t want getting more shit about how I sing.”

“That’s bullocks!” Liam shouts, startling Zayn and briefly Louis and Harry, who then turn their attention back on Harry’s phone. “Zayn, you sang so amazing I think the clouds opened up and I can hear the angels singing along.”

Zayn’s cheeks tint pink, “Really?” he asks, laughing a bit at Liam’s choice of words.

Liam doesn’t have the audacity to even blush and nods enthusiastically, “Yeah, you did. You could get your own record deal if you’d like. You can sing covers with Niall on his channel, for God’s sake.”

“Yeah, it’s true.” Niall says, walking in with a pint, “You sing amazing, mate. I’m surprised you aren’t singing like Haz here is. You should be famous than him, if I’m being honest.”

“Hey,” Harry drawls out, eyebrows slightly furrowing, “I’m right here.”

“I know,” Niall takes a gulp of his pint, “that’s why I said that.” He chuckles and throws a pillow on the ground at Harry and flops on the bed and nudges the back of Zayn’s head. “But we’re serious mate. You should sing more.”

“That’s what I’ve been trying to tell him.” Louis sighs. “But he won’t listen.”

“Can we not talk about this please?” Zayn pleads and looks over at his laptop and sighs in relief, “The video’s out.” He looks at Liam, “You alright with it?”

Liam nods, “Yeah I’m good. You can link them to it now, if you’d like.”

“And my video’s done too.” Liam announces and then goes to open a tab for Twitter to link his followers as well.

“And now we wait.” Harry says.

“Actually I’d love to stay here and wait for the views to come up and have people bombard my Twitter too but my finals are coming up and I have to revise so.” Louis says, standing up, “I got to go.” He looks at Zayn, “You coming mate?”

Zayn shakes his head, “Nah. I’ll see you later, right?” Louis nods and pats his head and ruffles Harry’s hair before passing Niall and Liam, slapping them lightly on the cheeks before he leaves the flat.

Niall looks over at Harry and smirks, “You like him, don’t you?” This causes Liam and Zayn to look at him.

“What?” Harry’s eyes widen, “No!”

“You’re blushing.” Niall points out and chuckles, “I knew it! You’re smitten over Louis!”

“I am _not_.” Harry grits through his teeth then quickly looks at Zayn, “Not that he’s not someone to be smitten over, Zayn. He’s nice and stuff. Really fun to be with and… I… um… I didn’t mean to, like, offend you –”

Zayn chuckles and waves him off, “It’s alright, Harry. I totally understand what you’re trying to say.” He then gives him a fake sigh, “But it’s a downer though.”

Harry’s eyebrows furrow, “Why?”

Zayn shrugs, “I dunno. It’s just that Louis has this _huge_ crush on you and it’d be such a shame to tell him that his celebrity crush doesn’t like him like that.” He sighs then gives him a smile, “But it’s alright, I guess. He’ll get over it eventually. Plus there are a couple of people Louis tells me at his Uni that are hitting on him so.”

Harry clears his throat and Zayn tries not to smirk when he notices the flash of jealously on Harry’s face when he mentioned the people who possibly like Louis, “Yeah, I guess.”

Zayn chuckles, “Let’s stop discussing this before Harry bursts and kills us all. I wanna have another around and finally kick Niall’s arse.”

“Please,” Niall rolls his eyes, “even Liam can’t beat me and he had my arm twisted that one time we were playing.”

Zayn looks at Liam and he nods, “It’s true. I had him tell me all his cheat codes and he did and I still didn’t win.”

Niall shrugs and smirks at him, winking. “Irish charm, Li. That’s the secret.”

*********

“Louis’s smart. I’m sure you guys coming here and spending a few hours with us isn’t gonna deprive him from revising. Plus, his finals are like two weeks away. He’s just revising to get a head start but like I said he’s smart so this will be a breeze.” Zayn tells them as they walk down the hall to where his and Louis’ flat are located.

“Are you sure you’re not just saying that? You don’t have to do this, Zayn. I just suggested it. You could’ve declined.” Harry warily tells him, twisting his fingers a bit.

Zayn waves him off, “Nonsense, Haz. I’m actually glad you suggested it. Louis will be glad for the company!”

“Plus I’ve always wanted to see Zayn’s room in person.” Liam says, slinging his arm around Harry. “So your offer was perfect for the opportunity.”

“We’re here.” Zayn reaches out to retrieve his keys and unlocks the door. He comes in and gestures them to do the same. “Lou?”

The door opens to which they assume is the bathroom and Louis’ head peeks out, “Hi!” he waves at them, grinning.

Harry tries not to die at how adorable Louis is and waves back, “Hi Louis.”

Louis continues smiling as he asks, “What are you guys doing here?”

“We got bored back in their flat.” Zayn says. “And Harry thought it’d be nice if we hang out here.”

Louis nods thoughtfully, “Oh.”

“Sorry.” Harry immediately says. “I thought it was a good idea at first but then I remembered you were revising but we were already here and –”

“It’s okay,” Louis cuts him off, smile still on his face, “I was done revising minutes ago. I’ve just finished showering.” He looks down before looking at them again, “Which reminds me I have to get dressed.” He chuckles and walks out of the bathroom, a towel hanging low on his hips. There’s a towel hanging off his neck and he uses the other end to dry his hair, “Excuse me.” he says before walking over to the room across the bathroom and closing it behind him.

Niall’s laughter soon fills the room along with him pointing at Harry’s dropped jaw, “Oh my God, I think Harry’s dead.”

*********

“So,” Liam continues to prod at the Thor action figure on Zayn’s shelf, “did you get your invite to the annual YouTubers convention yet?”

Zayn nods, “Yeah, what about you?”

Liam also nods, “Same.” He puts the action figure back on its place, “So I was wondering,” he sits on Zayn’s bed, “since you’ve been to that ever since the beginning and so technically you’ve been to L.A. as well…” he trails off, Zayn nodding as he continues to speak, “I was wondering if –”

Zayn beams, knowing where this is going. “I’d be happy to show you guys around L.A.”

Liam’s face breaks out in to a grin, “Really?” Zayn nods. “We’re gonna have so much fun, Zayn! I’m so excited.”

Zayn nods again, “Yeah we are. It’d be nice to go with a larger group.” He tells him. “Louis and I sometimes go together but it’s sad when I have to go alone since he has finals and stuff but I’m glad that by the time it starts, Louis’ starting his break.”

“That’s great!” And Zayn tries not to laugh at how enthusiastic Liam is, “Because Niall and I are bringing Harry too!” he wiggles his eyebrows. “Are you thinking what I’m thinking?”

Zayn chuckles but nods along, “Yeah, I do.” He snorts, “No offense, mate, but that thing Harry said about not having a crush on Lou?” He shakes his head, “I think it’s a load of bullshit.”

Liam nods, “It is, actually.”

*********

A few weeks later have passed and the boys are already heading to L.A. via the private jet owned by the record company where Harry is signed. “ _Now this is absolutely a perk to being best friends with a pop star._ ” Liam says before zooming the camera on Harry’s who rolls his eyes.

“ _I am not a pop star, Payne._ ”

“ _Fine, fine, you’re a rock star._ ” Harry nods happily and Liam moves the camera around the plane. “ _Okay so joining us in this little vlog to Los Angeles is fellow YouTuber and beauty guru – yes! I can finally say that without getting punched – Zayn Malik, who is currently sleeping, that’s why._ ” He pans the camera on Zayn’s sleeping form; his head is tilted a bit awkwardly so Liam reaches out to fix his posture, “ _Wouldn’t want him waking up with a stiff neck, right guys?_ ” And moves the camera around to Louis, who’s seated beside Harry, eating a sandwich the stewardess just gave him. “ _And here we have Zayn’s best friend who just finished his exams, give him a round of applause please –_ ” Harry starts clapping and whooping. “ _Harry, I was talking to the viewers, not you! Now shut up, you’re gonna wake Zayn up_.” Harry pouts and stops. “ _Anyway here’s Mr. Louis Tomlinson everybody!_ ” Louis looks up from his sandwich and gives a small wave to the viewers. “ _It’s a nice transition to see you not wearing a dress now Tommo_.” Louis glares at the camera and flips him off. “ _I’m gonna have to blur that._ ” He stands up from his seat and starts walking around the airplane, “ _Okay, now we’re gonna have to find Nialler. Last time I remember, he’s in the bathroom doing a number two._ ”

“ _I heard that._ ” The camera whips around to see Niall standing behind Liam all along, arms crossed. “ _I’m editing that shit, you wanker._ ” Liam laughs and Niall rolls his eyes playfully before going back to sit in his seat.

Liam continues to video around the airplane, taking a video of the stewards and stewardess and being told a couple of times to sit down and telling him that _no, Mr. Payne, you are really not allowed to take a video of the pilot_ so he results to going back to his seat just us Zayn wakes up.

“ _Good afternoon, Sleepy Head._ ”

Zayn groans, covering his face with his arm, “ _Don’t._ ”

“ _He doesn’t want your viewers to see how ugly he actually looks when he wakes up_.” Louis pipes up in the background.

“ _Shut up._ ” Zayn groans out, face still covered and pushes the camera away from him.

“ _You look like a hedgehog. It’s cute._ ” Liam compliments.

“ _Just get the camera away. My hair’s a mess._ ” Zayn complains with his arm not on his face anymore but it’s scrunched up in annoyance, making Liam giggle at how freaking adorable Zayn looks.

Liam puts the camera down and continues to smile at Zayn while he fixes his hair, “You look adorable.”

Zayn pouts. “You’re just saying that.” Liam reaches out and ruffles his hair. “Hey!” He shouts, making Liam giggle.

“They’re so cute it’s sickening.” Harry comments before taking a bite of his food afterwards.

“Tell me about it.” Niall comments from behind them.

*********

“ _We are officially in Los Angeles woo hoo!_ ” Liam says, taking a shot of the airport and then zooming on Zayn, who’s also taking a panorama view of the airport. “ _Now Zayn, what do you have to say about the beautiful city of Los Angeles?_ ”

Zayn directs the camera to him too and chuckles. “ _We’re still at the airport, you ass. Ask me that question later._ ”

Liam chuckles and directs the camera to Harry. “ _Now Haz, where’s this company car you said was gonna take us to the hotel?_ ”

“ _Should be here any minute – oh there he is!_ ” Harry waves over a man who looks bigger than all of them, “ _Paul, over here!_ ” Paul nods at all of them, even going as far as nodding to Zayn’s and Liam’s cameras before escorting them outside of the airport.

*********

Liam sighs in content as he lies down on his bed at the hotel, “This is the life.”

“Tell me about it.” Niall says, placing his bag down on the bed beside Liam’s.

Liam takes his phone out and unlocks it, seeing a message. “Hey, Jade sent me text hours ago.”

“What’d it say?” Niall asks, unzipping his duffel bag and grabbing some clothes out.

“This was six hours ago but she said that she just landed and sent me the details to where her room is if we wanted to find her but we should wait minutes before we visit her,” Niall looks at him, as if waiting for him to explain further, “because she’s with Perrie.” Niall nods, understandingly.

A knock comes at the door and it opens, revealing Harry, “Hi.” He waves before coming in and closing the door behind him. “I just saw Ed at the lobby.”

“That’s great.” Liam grins.

“Yeah, and then I saw that cover band Niall’s friends with.” Harry points the door.

“Josh’s here too?” Niall perks up, a grin planted on his face.

“Oh no,” Liam shakes his head, “you’re not going to go down and meet up with Josh.”

Niall groans, “Why not?”

“Because you promised we’d all hang out together with Zayn and Louis.” Harry explains.

Niall furrows his eyebrows in confusion. “So I can’t hang out with Josh so I can be the fifth wheel? Is that it?”

Both Liam and Harry look at each other, noticing the right in Niall’s words before looking at back at his smug face. Liam sighs. “Fine, you can invite Josh.”

*********

 

Liam pockets his phone and looks at Niall and Harry. “They’re coming down right now.” He looks at Niall. “Where’s Josh?”

Niall takes a video of the hotel lobby as he speaks. “He should be here in a couple of minutes.”

“Liam?”

Liam turns around and grins, seeing Jade and Perrie standing in front of him. “Jade, Perrie!” He says as both girls walk up and engulf him in a hug then Perrie pulls away to hug Harry and Niall as well.

“I am so sorry for cancelling our collab.” Jade says, frowning after she pulls away from Liam.

Liam waves her off, “It’s alright, Jade.”

Jade nods, giving him a sly smile, “Yeah, it is – especially since I watched the video of my replacement.” She giggles and nudges him lightly, “Zayn Malik, huh? He’s fit.”

“Jade.” Liam says, blush creeping up his cheeks.

“He is!” Jade giggles, “And I saw the collab you guys did with Harry, Niall and his friend Louis. He kept on, like, sliding beside you to get nearer! It’s too cute.” Liam whines. “Perrie thinks you guys look cute too, right babe?” she calls out to Perrie, who’s laughing along with Niall.

Perrie whips her head to look at Jade, “What?”

Jade grins, “Liam and Zayn – they’re cute right?”

Perrie looks at Liam as realization dawns on her and she nods quickly, grinning as well, “Yeah! Jade and I watched the videos.” She winks at him, “I’m seeing a suitable OTP.” Niall and Harry let out a snicker and she turns to them, “Excuse me you’re not one to laugh, _Louis_.” and Harry immediately stops, cheeks reddening as well.

“Can we stop talking about this? They’ll be here any –” Liam says but is cut off when the elevator dings open and both Zayn and Louis walk out of the elevators.

“Oh my, God is that them?” Jade says and squeals, “They’re even cuter in personal!”

As the two boys near, Louis raises his eyebrow as he obviously hears what Jade said, “Thank you Stranger.”

Jade giggles and puts out her hand, “Call me Jade and this is my girlfriend,” she wraps her arm around Perrie, “Perrie.”

Zayn snaps his fingers and grins, “Yeah I know you guys,” Zayn says, nodding to himself, “you lot do a lot of those ‘my girlfriend’ videos.”

Jade giggles, “Yup, that’s us. Oh, so anyway we better go, we have to go and meet some of our friends. We just stopped to say ‘hi’.” Perrie nods along. “So see you later yeah?” Liam nods and both girls wave at them before leaving.

“Hey guys.” Josh says, walking over to them and giving Niall a pat on the back.

Niall grins. “There you are.” He looks at the rest of the others, “Let’s go.” he says before leading the group out of the hotel.

*********

“Basically, we’ve been here a handful of times so we can’t really go and show you guys _every_ famous landmark here but,” Zayn says, gesturing towards the sidewalk they’re walking at, “we can show you guys this really nice restaurant Louis and I eat at when we come here.”

Liam nods. “Depends, can we afford it there?” He lifts his camera up to take a shot of the restaurant’s name.

Zayn snorts. “Of course, I mean, if we can afford it, you guys can too.”

“Plus Haz can pay the bill if we can’t.” Niall says and all of them burst out laughing.

“Let’s go then.” Zayn chuckles as he grabs Liam by the wrist and drags him forward.

*********

As the boys are eating, Louis leans in beside Harry to ask, “So, what’s your meeting in LA about anyways?”

Harry takes a bite of his pasta before saying, “My manager didn’t really give me specific details but I think it’s about a UK tour?”

“Holy shit Haz, that’s amazing!” Niall grins.

Harry chuckles, “Yeah, it is. If it is a tour, I’m proper excited about it.”

“Can I come with?” Louis asks, giggling. “I can be your official groupie.” Zayn looks over at Liam and side eyes Louis, making Liam smile and duck his head.

Harry chuckles again, bumping Louis’ shoulder with his, “You can come if you want. You don’t _have_ to be my groupie.” As he says that, a blush starts creeping up his cheeks, making Louis giggle again.

Louis winks at him. “Are you sure?”

“So,” Liam says, breaking the noticeable sexual tension between Louis and Harry, by turning to Zayn, “when’s your panel starting?”

Zayn shrugs. “Tomorrow in the afternoon… it’s just me though but Louis is accompanying me to the meet and greet afterwards so we’ll be kind of busy. What about you?”

“Same as about you lot. It’s just me on my own as well since Niall has his own panel too.” Liam answers. “How about afterwards we go and grab a bite?”

Zayn blushes and asks, “Just you and I?”

Liam nods and confirms, “Just you and I.”

“You two are seriously planning a date on _our_ group date?” Niall deadpans and rolls his eyes, “Rude much.”

“Piss off.” Liam gives him a mock glare, “It’s just as friends,” He looks back at Zayn, “right Zayn?”

Zayn nods quickly and even goes as to wave Niall off to convince him, “Yeah, just pals.”

Josh snorts and mutters, “Pals.” Making Niall chuckle and pat his back.

*********

As Liam’s waiting for the upload of the vlog he filmed from the airplane up until their lunch yesterday, he hears a knock on the door. Zayn pops his head in and grins. “Hey.”

Liam waves at him. “Hey, you finished with your meet and greet?”

Zayn nods and enters the room, closing the door behind him, “Yeah. I got a lot of gifts.” He sits next to Liam.

“Did you fans ask about me?” Liam teases.

Zayn nods again. “Actually, yeah, they did. They wanted to know when we’re going to make another video.” He looks over at Liam’s laptop. “Oh, so you’re uploading the video now?” Liam nods. “What about you though? Your panel was just over?”

Liam nods. “Yeah, like half an hour ago – along with a meet and greet.” He stands up from the bed he and Zayn were sitting and goes towards the large sack in the corner of the room. “Check out the gifts I’ve gotten.” He digs in to the pile, putting his head in the sack and soon he emerges with a human-sized cowboy hat similar to the one Woody from Toy Story wears. “And I got a bunch of action figures – both DC and Marvel – and comics.”

Zayn grins. “That’s ace! I got some too but Louis and I usually get like sex toys and stuff. That’s why we rarely do ‘opening mail’ videos.” He laughs.

He stares amusedly as Liam chokes. “What?” he manages to say. “They’re _allowed_ to give those kinds of stuff?”

Zayn nods. “Yeah but we don’t mind, especially since we benefit a lot from those.” He winks and leans back against the bed and Liam tries to erase the image of Zayn fucking himself with a dildo or walking around all day with a butt plug in his ass because _I feel naughty, Liam_. “So,” he says, breaking Liam from his reverie that might cause him to get a boner while wearing a cowboy hat. He looks over at Zayn, “you mentioned about grabbing something to eat after this?”

Liam nods, immediately remembering, “Oh! Right!” he says, rushing over to his laptop and seeing that the video’s already uploaded. He copies the link and tweets it then closes his laptop. “Come on.”

*********

After taking pictures with a couple of fans outside of the venue, they start walking down the sidewalk to In-and-Out. “God, I missed this place.” Zayn sighs as they both enter. “Every time I come to America you’ll definitely find me here.” He chuckles. “We dunno why but this is where Lou and I usually eat at.”

Liam grins, “What a coincidence, me too! Harry and Niall aren’t too keen with fast foods unless it’s like, KFC. They’re too posh for these kinds of places. Harry’s favorite restaurant is in Milan and Niall’s in France.” He and Zayn walk up to the counter and order their food and take their seats. “Speaking of friends, where’s Louis?”

Zayn jabs his thumb in the direction of the sidewalk they were walking at, “Back at the hotel, bored out of his mind probably.”

“You should’ve invited him.” Liam insists.

Zayn furrows his eyebrows, “Oh… but I thought it was just me and you, _Leeyum_.”

Liam tries not to let his heart melt at that and instead shrugs, “Well, yeah.” Zayn chuckles in response and shakes his head fondly at him.

As they eat their food, they start talking about every topic they can dwell on: Girlfriends ( _“nah, never had one.” Zayn admits_ ), boyfriends ( _“tons.” Zayn replies with a chuckle and Liam doesn’t know if he should be jealous because Zayn had a lot of boyfriends or endeared because he’s so cute. “Same.” He replies instead._ ), music ( _“fuck, Liam, you should listen to ‘Childish Gambino’!” Zayn grins. “Isn’t he the guy in Community?” Zayn nods. “Yeah, I will. I mean, I listen to Drake and JT and Jay-Z so why not?” “Are you fucking serious Liam?! Mate, me too!”_ ), superheroes ( _“I’m in to Iron Man and Green Lantern.” “Yeah, I saw that article in Sugarscape about you donating this piece inspired by Green Lantern.” “Yeah…” Zayn admits with a blush._ ), and how they came out.

“My Mum always knew,” Zayn starts, twisting his fingers on the table, “so when I came out to her, she just hugged me and then when she pulled back, she had this proud smile on her face and just told me that she knows and she’s proud of me and I asked her how she knew. She said that it wasn’t really hard because there was a time when I was, like, eight and one of her friend’s came and she had a daughter that had a proper crush on me and she brought Barbie dolls with her and her brother had Hot Wheels and invited me to play with him and I wanted to play with the dolls but her brother was _so_ cute,” Liam chuckles, “and I ended up having them play with me together so I can have the dolls ride on the Hot Wheels _and_ spend time with the brother.” Liam smiles as he imagines a doe-eyed Zayn playing with dolls and giggling like mad because of a boy.

“How did your Dad take it?”

Zayn looks down, a reminiscent smile on his face, “Not well, he was disappointed and sad because I’m his only son and I totally get that so I understood when he didn’t talk to me for a month. But then, I got home from school with a bruise because someone punched me for, you know, _being me_ and he got so mad that he marched up to school the next day and demanded to see the guy who punched me so _he can punch sense in to him_ and afterwards, he hugged me and apologized and just.” He looks up, a grin on his face. “Everything’s fine. My sisters knew after that because Baba didn’t want them knowing at first and then apparently they knew so after Baba said I was gay, they let out a huge breath and rolled their eyes and said they knew all along ever since.” He takes a sip of his drink afterwards and looks up at him through his eyelashes. “What about you then?”

“I told my Dad first.” Liam admits. “He also knew – before I did, actually. I was just coming to terms with it when I told him and we were in the yard, fixing this broken fence and then he kept looking at me and telling me stuff like I can tell him everything because he’s my Dad and whatever I tell him, he’ll still love me the same way and I dunno, I just blurted out and then I cried and we’re so stupid,” he says, a smile playing on his lips, “because we both dropped our hammers almost on our foot, but we didn’t care, and just hugged each other and I kept crying and he just comforted me until Mum came out with food and was flustered why we were in the middle of fixing the fence and crying and that’s when I told her too. Then she cried and we were just in the yard, crying and hugging each other.” He chuckles and Zayn breaks out in a smile. “It was proper mental but… nice.” He shrugs. “Then afterwards, my sisters found us there too and then my sister, Ruth, asked ‘did Liam just come out?’ and I nodded and they both smiled and walked up to me, hugging me too. And I’m telling you now, me and my family are not the touchy type.”

 Zayn grins. “Well, my family is, so you better prepare when you meet them.” And he stops. Everything stops – for him, at least. Like, his breathing and his limbs just… stop. He also feels the world stop. Because _what the fuck did I just say?_ He basically implied that Liam is going to meet his family soon, like Liam is going to be a big part of his life that he will eventually have to meet his parents and family. Fuck, he didn’t even introduce Louis to them until they saw him in the background when he was on a Skype chat with them. But, Liam. “Um…” Is the only thing he can say, gnawing at his bottom lip too because what else is he suppose to say or do? He feels like even as he so much lifts his fingers now, it’ll just destroy the awkward tension and Liam will realize what Zayn was implying and be completely freaked out and never speak to him again.

But he waits and he’s so glad he did because Liam’s lips turn in to a smile. A smile so wide, the sides of his eyes crinkle cutely and he looks like a puppy that you just petted and gave a treat and a nice belly rub to go along with it. “I’ll keep that in mind.” He replies and Zayn wills himself to let his sigh of relief internally because yeah, he didn’t freak Liam out and double yeah, they’re still friends.

And after they finish eating and go back to their hotel and Zayn goes back to his and Louis’ room to change and lie for a bit (he doesn’t even notice that Louis’ gone), he realizes that _Liam was thinking about the possibility of meeting his family too_.

*********

“So,” Louis draws out, flopping next to Zayn later that evening beside him on his bed, “I just read Liam’s recent tweet.” He waves his phone in front of Zayn.

Zayn looks at him from the TV where a rerun is playing, “Yeah, so?”

Louis smirks and nudges him lightly, “You sly dog, you two went on a date!” he gushes.

“Okay, please never use ‘sly dog’ _ever_ again.” Zayn advises, “And we didn’t go on a date.”

Louis rolls his eyes, “Please. I make the term ‘Y.O.L.O’ not tiring when I say it and uh, yeah, you did!” he snorts, “And please, In-and-Out? Dude, I love that place too but it’s not a place for a first date.”

“Yeah, it’s because we weren’t on a date!” Zayn points out. “We were done with the meet-and-greets and the panels so we went to grab a bite, simple as.”

“The captions from your fans say otherwise.” And Zayn snatches Louis’ phone and unlocks it, half-ignoring the picture of Harry as his lock screen and opens the Twitter app and types in his and Liam’s name on the search bar and scrolls down the tweets.

One even attaches a blurry picture of Liam and Zayn inside the restaurant eating with the caption,

“Ooh, I like that one.” Louis points to the last tweet and Zayn locks his phone and throws it on his lap.

“That’s so weird.” Louis looks over at him and he shrugs, “I mean, I don’t find it creepy or not but just, I’m worried how Liam’s gonna take this. I mean, we’re both gay but that doesn’t mean he would like the idea of he and I together, right?” he asks.

Louis snorts, “Zee, who wouldn’t like the idea of being with you?” it’s his turn to shrug. “You’re an amazing person, you’re caring, kind and you’re beautiful. Liam would be _on his knees_ begging to be yours.”

“Hmm… he’s ‘on his knees’? That’s not such a bad thought if you think of it.”

Louis gags, “Disgusting, Malik. I did not want to know what you have planned for Liam.” He rolls his eyes and leans against the headboard.

“So, setting my Liam problem-not-problem aside,” Zayn leans and nudges Louis, “what’s going on with you and Mr. Pop star?” he laughs, seeing the blush creep up his cheeks. “Were you with him after the meet-and-greet?” Louis mumbles. “What?”

“Yes!” Louis answers louder. “I was with him.” Zayn gives him a ‘go on’ gesture, “Oh no, Malik, a gentleman never tell his secrets.”

“It’s _magician_ and please Louis, you’re far from a gentleman.”

“Yeah, you’re right.” and Louis adjusts his seat on the bed, facing Zayn, “So, after the meet-and-greet, he  texted me that his meeting was done and if I wanted to meet him at the record label where the meeting is held and apparently it’s fifteen minutes from here so I did. Then, he showed me around the building and then showed me to one of the recording booths. Then he was like,” he clears his throat and speaks in a slow drawl that is lower than his usual voice, “’Hey Lou, I’m working on this song and I wanted you to know if it was great.’” Then speaks normally, “And I said ‘sure, why not?’ then he goes to the recording booth and the guy beside me who’s manning the buttons and shit starts doing his job and then this banjo tune starts coming and then he’s singing this really cute, country-ish song and it’s just so fucking good! Then he kept looking at me through the song and one time he winked and I _nearly_ died!” he ends with a release of a huge breath, hugging Zayn. “He’s. Just. Perfect.”

And Zayn genuinely smiles. He feels happy for his best friend, knowing this is what he’s been looking for ever since he found out he’s gay: find a nice boy and just be _happy_ with him.

“So,” he leans in with a teasing tone, “did you two kiss?”

Louis snorts, “I wish.” And he notices the flash of frown that crosses Zayn’s face before he schools it with a neutral look. “Oh come on, Malik. I like him, yeah, but nothing will ever happen between us. He’s on top of his game, he’s _going on tour_ and he’ll be meeting lots of models and artists and I’m just… me – a university student who sometimes guest stars in your videos.” He ends his rant with a shake of his head and gets off Zayn’s bed and walks towards the bathroom.

Just before he closes the door, Zayn hears him say, “Plus, he’s like way out of my league.”

*********

“Plus, he’s like way out of my league.” Harry drawls out before talking a gulp of his drink and setting it down on the counter. He wipes his mouth with the back of his hand before calling out the bartender for another round.

“I’m not finished with my drink yet.” Liam says.

Harry shrugs, “The round’s for me, Li,” then gives Niall a side-eye who’s also giving him a side-eye, “and Niall.” He throws in, causing Niall to beam and grab the first shot glass the bartender slides over to them.

“You can’t just drink your little Louis problems away, Haz.” Liam shrugs, “You don’t know, maybe he likes you back.” he smiles gratefully at the bartender who slides him another drink.

Harry shakes his head, running his hand through his curls that are enclosed tightly with the American flag patterned bandana, “Impossible. I sang ‘Happily’ to him Liam and he just clapped and said it was good. I _winked_ at him!” he waves his hands around widely, “But he just smiled and then afterwards he said we had to go.”

“What did you expect?” Niall snorts from beside Harry, “That when you get out of the recording booth, he’s just going to jump in to your arms and kiss the hell out of you?” Harry’s cheek flush and Niall rolls his eyes, “Haz, this isn’t some romantic comedy you like watching. This is real life and if you want to get Louis’ attention then I suggest you do something than singing him your Taylor Swift-ish song.”

“That song is _not_ Taylor Swift-ish okay?!” Harry argues, glaring at Niall but he just merely brushes it off, shrugging and taking a gulp of his drink.

“Niall’s right,” Liam adds and Harry turns to him with a glare and he shakes his head, “not about the song but like, your way of getting Louis. Haz, you have to be spontaneous. You said it yourself, you think Louis is spontaneous so why not level his spontaneity with your own?” He suggests.

“How do you suppose I do that? Singing to him my unreleased song is spontaneous enough. People would _kill_ to get their hands on even a snippet of it.”

Niall snorts, “Way to be humble about your music, mate.”

Harry frowns, “I wasn’t being cocky. I just…” his frown deepens and he runs a hand through his curls, “I sounded like a twat there, didn’t I?”

Liam tilts his head from side-to-side like weighing Harry’s question out. “Kind of but everybody’s got to be at least confident about their talents right?” Harry slowly nods. “So, anyway, Louis… Niall and I will come up with something and we promise you this will make Louis possibly date you.”

“We will?” Niall asks.

Liam glares at him, “Yes Niall, we will.”

Harry grins and wraps his arms around both of his best friends, “You guys are the best!”

*********

Harry continued to sit on Niall’s bed, glaring at Liam, who was sitting on his own bed. He looked sheepish, embarrassed even as he endured the scrutinizing gazes of both his friends. “Haz… I –” but stopped when Harry lifted his hand up to silent him.

“Liam,” he started calmly, his face filled with calmness before he scrunches up his face in what appears to be a glare but truly just makes him like a mad kitten, “do you know how many people I’ve got mentioning me on Twitter wanting to know what the secret is?” Liam silently shakes his head. “Well, that’s bad because I don’t know either.” He says sarcastically. “A heck ton, Liam okay? I’ve got people left and right tweeting me about conspiracies and prodding me to tell them what you meant. Hell, I can’t even tweet about how my lunch went without someone asking me about it.”

“I’m sorry.” Liam sighs. “It’s just… I got excited, that’s all.” He pouts, “I’m gonna go clear it up and tell them it’s something stupid.”

“You better.” Harry huffs. “And as for that, I expect this little plan of yours and Niall to be a success.”

Liam gives him a mock-salute. “You have my word, Harry.”

*********

“So,” Zayn starts, swinging his legs as he sat on the counter of the bathroom in Liam and Niall’s hotel room as Liam brushed his teeth, “am I still part of this plan of yours?”

They – along with Niall, Louis and Harry – are currently at Liam and Niall’s hotel room, about to watch a movie from one of the DVDs Louis decided to bring and Liam’s currently brushing his teeth because he won’t be eating any snacks with them ( _“who doesn’t eat during a movie?” Niall asks with a horrified look on his face. “Me.” is what Liam answers before going to the bathroom and Zayn following behind like a lost animal_ ).

Liam nods before he leans down to spit the foam and gargle. Once he’s done, he wipes his mouth with the back of his hand, “Of course but you promise me not to tell Louis, okay?”

Zayn purses his lips and Liam tries to avoid focusing on that, “But why?” He whispers. “Is this plan about him?” Liam nods and his eyes go wide before he reaches his foot to kick the door close and pulls Liam close. “Are you and Niall going to set him and Harry up?”

Liam clears his throat, looking anywhere but ahead to avoid any other close proximity he has with Zayn and nods. “Uh, yeah, we are. Just don’t tell Louis, okay? I want this to be perfect.”

Zayn pulls away and nods quickly, “You have my word.”

“Oi,” Louis shouts from the couch, “are you two fucking in there or summat? We need to watch this movie. Niall here won’t start it without you lot!”

Blush creeps up on both of their cheeks before Zayn hops down on the counter and opens the door, coming out with Liam following, “We’re here, you bastard. No need to shout.” Zayn hisses as he flops down beside him on the couch.

“Wouldn’t be able to hear with all the moaning you guys would be doing.” Louis snickers.

“Shut up Louis.” Zayn rolls his eyes, thumping him in the back of his head.

“Mean.” Louis mutters.

“Well, since I won’t be doing anything other than watching the movie,” Liam picks up his camera and the others groan, making him frown, “what, why?”

“Come on, Liam. Can’t you just do anything without making a vlog out of it?” Niall complains.

Liam’s jaw drops a bit. “These things I’m doing where I’m making videos out of pay the rent, okay? Plus, it’s not like you don’t enjoy it. Not to be an ass, but I have more followers than you Niall and your follower count boosts whenever I post a video with you in it.”

Niall glares at him before closing his eyes, releasing a sigh and then nodding, “Yeah, you’re right. Just… keep the commentary down a bit, yeah? I actually want to watch this movie in peace.” Liam nods in agreement.

“So, what movie are we watching?” Harry asks, grinning at Louis as he opens his bag to pull out the DVDs.

“Well, the correct question is what _movies_ are we watching.” he pulls out a couple of DVDs, “And it’s all of the Paranormal Activity movies!” he cheers.

Liam chuckles before looking at Niall, “’Watch this movie in peace’ huh?” he teases.

“Fuck off.”

*********

“ _So, we are currently watching the second Paranormal Activity movie and as you’ve guys seen when we were watching the first one, Harry peed his pants – oh, hey Haz, that’s another thing your fans don’t know about you. You still pee your pants!_ ” Liam taunts as he pans the camera towards Harry.

Harry groans, “ _That was one time! Please, I’m sure a lot of people pee their pants during horror movies_.”

Liam only chuckles as he moves the camera to focus on Niall, whose head is buried on Louis’ shoulder, “ _Oh my, God, oh my, God, oh my, God, I don’t wanna watch this movie anymore. Turn it off, please._ ” He pleads but Louis just shrugs it off, eating a handful of popcorn as he continues to watch the movie with a stoic expression.

“ _Niall_ ,” Louis hisses, “ _if you’re gonna start crying, can you at least not cry on my shirt? This is my favorite shirt and I can feel your tears._ ” But still, he lets Niall sob on his shoulder as he continues to watch the movie.

Something happens during the movie that makes them all jump in surprise – Harry screaming, Zayn’s eyes widening, Louis leaning back because of being surprised by Harry’s scream and Niall sobbing – and makes Liam almost drop his camera.

Liam focuses the camera on Zayn, who’s seated beside him and sipping on a can of Coca-Cola, “ _Hey Zaynie,_ ” Zayn flicks his eyes towards the camera before looking back at the screen, “ _aren’t you scared?_ ”

Zayn shakes his head, “ _Eh, not really. I mean, I’ve seen this bunch of times. Lou and I are perfectly emotionless to this._ ” he chuckles, “ _I take it you guys don’t watch scary movies often?_ ”

Liam moves the camera, indicating a shake of the head, “ _Nope. As you can see, we’re too weak for these kinds of stuff. The only movies we’ve seen that include creatures like this are the Men in Black series, Ghostbusters and Casper._ ”  Zayn giggles at that and Liam makes sure he gets a shot of Zayn’s nose scrunching up, making it a bit big and his eyes crinkling and grin widening, showing his teeth and the tongue pushing behind it.

*********

“Okay, now listen to this.” Harry says, looking down at phone, “ _’Harry Styles screaming and peeing his pants in Liam’s new video made my day. Like literally. I wish he screamed and pee his pants more often. My life would be complete’._ ”

Zayn chuckles, “Well, it certainly made my day too. So I have to agree with that.”

Harry glares at him, “You’re mean. I’m going to tweet to everyone how mean you are.”

Zayn rolls his eyes, “Oh come on. We all know you won’t do that. You love me too much.”

“For the few weeks we’ve known each other?” Harry asks sarcastically but then nods, “Yeah totes love you.”

“Did you just say ‘totes’?” Louis laughs.

“Shut up!” Harry says but laughs along.

“So,” Liam starts, looking at Niall then at Zayn and winks before turning to Louis and Harry, “uh, Jade told me she and Perrie along with their friends went to the Santa Monica Pier and they had tons of fun so I was thinking we could go there. I mean, we could at least make this time in America last right?”

“I’ve been to the Santa Monica Pier.” Harry states.

Liam nods, “Yeah but we haven’t so why not be our tour guide yeah?” He asks, “I’ve heard Louis here,” he gestures to Louis, “always wanted to go there.”

Harry looks over at Louis, who nods. “Yeah, it looked nice in music videos and movies. I wanted to see what the fuss was about. And the time Zayn and I have gone here, we never got the chance to explore farther, you know?” He chuckles then looks at Liam, “How’d you know?”

“Zayn told me.” But he didn’t. He was just guessing and turns out, he was right.

Harry hums, “Well, sure then.”

*********

Once they get to Santa Monica Pier, Niall speaks up, “Hey Liam, Zayn. I need to go to the bathroom; can you guys come with me?”

Harry furrows his eyebrows at him, “What are you, an eight year old or a teenage girl?”

“Both, actually,” Niall answers and grabs Liam’s and Zayn’s hands, “we’ll be back. You guys just ride the Ferris wheel or summat, I don’t know. Just stay together at all times, okay? Okay, thanks, we love you.” he rushes out as he speed walks away from the two.

“Way to be subtle.” Liam jokes.

“Actually, I _really_ needed to pee. Where’s the bathroom?” Niall asks, whipping his head around and standing on his tiptoes to look ahead of the passersby.

Zayn shrugs, “Dunno, you should’ve asked Harry about that since he’s been here.”’

Niall curses, “You’re right.” He groans, “But I just left him and Louis.” Then he proceeds to walk away.

“Where are you going?” Liam asks.

“I’m going to find someone who looks like they know the way around here.” Niall calls back, not turning as he continues to walk. “Just stay there or summat, I dunno.”

Zayn sighs and looks at Liam, “Guess it’s just you and me then.”

Liam looks at him with an eyebrow rose, “Why do you sound like you’re sad to be with me?” He gasps and places a hand over his chest, “Zayn, do you not like me?”

Zayn’s eyes widen and he splutters, “What? Of course I like you! You’re like the coolest person I know. I just –” he trails off, noticing the amused smile on Liam’s lips before he rolls his eyes. “You’re such a wanker, I swear.” Causing Liam to laugh and grab his hand. Zayn looks down at their intertwined hands, “Where are we going?” he asks.

“Wherever you want to, I guess.” Liam says and pulls him along.

*********

 “So,” Liam drags, seated on the couch in Harry’s hotel room, “how was it?”

Harry shrugs as he unbuttons his shirt, “It was good.”

“’Good’, what do you mean ‘good’?” Niall asks while he rummages through the mini fridge in the corner of the room, “We purposely left you guys for two hours and all you can say is ‘good’?”

“Nothing happened, okay?” Harry says.  “We went on a few rides, I signed a few autographs and took pictures with a few fans and we went to eat in one of the stands. That’s it.”

“Are you freaking serious?” Liam groans, “We purposely left you guys so you can make a fucking move. The fans already know you’re bisexual so you don’t have to hide anything in public! So what was stopping you from even making a move?”

Harry bites his lips before closing his eyes and letting out a frustrated groan. “He mentioned someone.” Niall and Liam turn to look at him as he sits beside Liam, shirt unbuttoned. “We were eating and he mentioned that there’s this guy in his class at Uni who’s making a move on him and he’s telling me how he has a date with him.”

“What’s his name?” Niall asks.

Harry sighs. “Name’s Greg or James or something.”

Niall stands up and closes the mini fridge’s door. “Greg James.” He states before sitting next to Harry.

“How’d you know?” Harry asks.

“Well, before I dropped out of Uni to partake full-time in making videos, I’ve heard of Greg James. I even went for drinks with him and his pal ‘Grimmy’ was it or ‘grimy’, I don’t really know.” Niall chuckles, “But yeah, they have a radio show on the school’s station and they play sick songs and do school advices for everyone so basically, they’re popular around.”

“Is he cute?” Liam asks.

Niall purses his lips before nodding, “Yeah, he is. He’s tall too.” He looks over at Harry, “I see Louis has a type.”

“Yeah, but now I’m not it! I’m just tall.” Harry complains, “I’m no Greg James.”

“Cheer up,” Liam nudges him, “maybe this Greg guy isn’t all that. Maybe he’s a total douche and once Louis realizes that, he’ll realize you’ve been the one after all.”

*********

The convention is over and they all fly back to England. Liam and Zayn don’t see each other for a few days afterwards, what with Zayn going back home to Bradford to visit his family and Liam’s at his flat trying not to think about what Zayn’s up to while in his childhood home. Meanwhile, Harry’s working on his album in the studio not knowing if Louis’s okay or how his date with Greg went; Louis is at Doncaster, spending time with his family since Zayn went to his and he didn’t want to be alone – plus he also misses his family – and as for Niall, who’s in the other room is just sitting there with his guitar waiting for all of his friends to succumb in to their feelings and finally admit they love one another.

Liam tweets. He’s _really_ bored right now and he wants to talk to someone – preferably Zayn – but he’s scared that he’ll seem pushy and come on, they’ve only not seen each other for a whole week and fine, that’s basically reasonable to contact each other but not for Liam.

And okay, in Liam’s defense, he’s _not_ flirting with Zayn, okay? It’s true. He didn’t make Zayn handsome; it’s his parents’ doings with the chromosomes and the genes and stuff. So, yeah, he’s just stating facts for Zayn. He isn’t flirting and he won’t ever flirt with Zayn because he’s his friend.

But that’s not the case with his followers. After that tweet, his mentions blow up with a bunch of tweets cooing over both him and Zayn. And that’s where his phone beeps, indicating a message.

 

Liam wills himself not to blush because there’s nothing to blush about, okay? Zayn just finds them entertaining, that’s all. I mean, these tweets are pretty entertaining. Talking about him and Zayn going out on dates, getting married, having kids and having sex – yeah, they’re pretty entertaining.

 

He waits a minute but Zayn doesn’t reply and he feels something in his chest that he denies that is sadness. Because _what the fuck?_ Zayn might be busy. He won’t have the time to –

His phone beeps and he quickly grabs him, reading the message with a grin on his face.

 

Okay. Fuck. Maybe he shouldn’t have said that.

But he did and now he’s panicking on the inside.

Surely, Zayn wouldn’t know he’s talking about him right? But he might since all throughout since he met Zayn; he’s the only one he spends time day and night with. But, hell, it could be anyone! There are a lot of people he’s met – girls and boys – in passing and maybe he can make Zayn think he’s seen someone during the meet and greet or during the convention that caught his eye.

But he doesn’t get to even make an excuse for it. And it’s because Zayn never replies after that.

*********

_Liam’s interested in someone._

That’s the only thing Zayn’s been thinking about ever since Liam sent that text. But who could it possibly be? He’s never seen Liam turn towards someone or hell, even tell him that he’s seen someone that’s really beautiful and he’d like to ask them out on a date.

But who is he kidding? He’s not that important in Liam’s life. Why would Liam even think to tell him about these things? Their friends, that’s it. Liam has the choice to tell him if he wants to date a certain person or not.

And Liam chose not to until today.

“Zayn, Zayn, Zayn!” Waliyha chants as she races inside his room, grin too wide. “What did Liam say?”

He snaps out of it. Instead, looking at his sister and giving her a small smile. “Um… he wanted to know what your Twitter name is so he can follow you.”

The look on his sister’s face distracts him from that horrid news as she squeals and starts jumping around in his room. “Are you serious?” She squeals again, grabbing him by the shoulders then grabbing his phone. Zayn’s about to scold her for taking his phone when she types out something and apparently sends it and drops the phone on his bed before running out of his room, laughing and shouting.

Zayn sighs and grabs his phone and sees that Waliyha typed out her Twitter name on his text conversation with Liam. _Wow, has it been thirty minutes already?_

His fingers hover over the keypad, contemplating if he should reply or not.  Then he gets another message.

He quickly replies back.

God, it hurts to lie to Liam.

*********

“ _All I’m saying is that I’ve been trying to contact him for hours now. He fucking tweeted that he’s just relaxing right now and he won’t respond to my messages?_ ” Louis, but all, screeches on the phone as Zayn lies down on his bed and listens to his best friend rant about Harry.

“Well maybe that’s what he wants. To relax and he doesn’t want to be bothered.” Zayn reasons out. Honestly, it’s been hours and Louis is still going on and on about how Harry’s been ignoring him since they all got back from America.

“ _No shit. I am great company! He said so himself so why doesn’t we want to talk to me?_ ” And Zayn feels bad. He really does. He can hear the desperation in Louis’ tone as he tries to find out what’s wrong.

He knows. Louis is totally _gone_ for Harry. Usually, with other boys and girls, he wouldn’t have a problem with them. If they weren’t interested, he’d just shrug and move on to the next person who’s been eyeing him. But this one is different. It’s not even some stupid idol worship anymore.

Louis is totally in love with Harry. And he’s freaking sad that Harry’s been ignoring him.

“I’m sure there’s a perfectly good –” But he’s cut off.

“ _He just posted something!_ ” Louis screeches. Then both of them pause.

“You’ve got your mobile notifications for him ‘on’, do you?” Zayn casually asks.

Louis snorts. “ _Who doesn’t? Now let me… oh._ ” Then everything falls in to silence and that’s when Zayn worries.

“Louis, are you alright?” He asks, but he thinks he already knows the answer.

“ _Um… yeah,_ ” His heart aches, hearing the crack and distant in Louis’ voice. “ _Uh… Zayn, I got to go. I think my Mum wants me to help her with something. I’ll talk to you soon. Bye._ ” And Zayn’s known Louis for a long time to know that he’s trying hard not to cry.

As soon as both of them hang up, he immediately checks the notification he’s gotten from Harry’s Twitter. Because Louis’ right, everyone’s has notifications on for Harry. He sees it’s a tweet with a direct link to Twitter on it and presses it, immediately being brought to the post itself and sees…

“You’re dating Taylor Swift?” Liam asks once Harry picks up.

He can sense Harry’s incredulous look through the line. “ _What? No, we are not dating. What made you think that?_ ” Then he can _feel_ Harry rolling his eyes. “ _Liam, please tell me you don’t believe any of those things the media says, do you?_ ”

“No, of course not,” Liam assures him, “I just saw this comment then I saw the pictures of you two leaving the restaurant and you two just looked really comfortable with each other. I didn’t even know you’re friends with her.”

“ _We’ve just met, actually. I’m helping her write some songs for her album and she’s helping me, and our management thought it’d be good if we went and eat together. She’s a right laugh, and pretty dorky too._ ” Harry laughs, like he just remembered something from his dinner.

“You wanna date her then?” Liam asks. He should ask now that it’s here – although, he’s rooting for Louis on the inside.

Harry snorts. “ _Liam, come on, I’m not interested in her. You know who I like. Plus, all we did was talk about him and she gave me really nice advice._ ”

Liam grins. “Are you serious? Taylor Swift gave you advice on how to woo Louis?”

“ _Yup, she also thinks if I don’t snag him now she’s going to do it herself. I showed her a couple of pictures. She thinks he’s pretty cute._ ” Harry grumbles. Leave it to Harry to be jealous that the person he’s “rumored” to be dating is going to steal the person he’s actually interested in.

“Well you better hurry up then.” Liam says. “Louis is pretty cute.”

“ _Are you trying to tell me something, Payne?_ ” Harry says with a little anger in his tone.

“I’m just kidding, Louis’s not my type.” Liam assures him but that just made Harry annoyed.

“ _What do you mean? Louis is everyone’s type!_ ” He shouts at the phone that Liam had to pull the phone away from him to save his hearing.

“Make up your mind, Styles.” Liam groans. “You know what I mean by that, just… what about Greg James?”

“ _I’ll take care of that._ ” And he pales at the tone of Harry’s voice.

“You’re not going to do anything about him, are you?” He cautiously asks.

“ _What? Of course not, I’ll just… do something. Don’t worry about it._ ” He’s still pale because of Harry’s tone.

“Please don’t commit murder.” He desperately pleads.

“ _I’m not! Geez Liam, I’m not a psycho!_ ” Harry grumbles. “ _Just… trust me, okay? I better go now though. Talk to you later, bye!_ ” Then he hangs up, leaving Liam to lean back against the chair he’s seating on.

Conversations with Harry on the phone always end up like this – worrying and outright hilarious.

*********

It’s been a week and Liam still doesn’t know what Harry did about whatever the hell is going on with him and Louis. But when he asked when he saw Harry the next morning, since the boy got home late from the studio, he said, ‘ _I already took care of it. It doesn’t mean I get to date Louis already but I’m getting there._ ’ then gives him a pat on the back before starting up on his morning coffee and whistling as he grabs some ingredients to make some waffles.

Harry makes waffles only when he did something he thinks makes him the smartest guy in the world.

Oh dear.

He’s on his run when he feels his phone vibrate. He stops, not wanting to look at his phone while running because come on, that’s pretty dangerous. He opens it and sees a text from Zayn.

He must look pretty crazy, grinning goofily in the middle of the sidewalk but nonetheless, he replies.

_ _

He gets the thumbs up emoji as a reply and he’s jogging back to their flat to see Niall and Harry in their boxers playing video games. Harry sees him and waves in greeting but he doesn’t reply as he speeds towards his room and once he gets there, he takes a quick shower and changes in three minutes flat. He’s running out of the flat, ignoring the greeting Harry was about to say, who then elbows Niall when he starts to laugh loudly at Harry being ignored twice.

If he thought he looked pretty crazy smiling down at his phone while reading that text from Zayn earlier in the middle of the sidewalk, he probably looks like an even more idiot as he’s tapping his foot impatiently as the elevator goes down to the lobby, completely ignoring the teenage girl giving him odd looks, and rushes out of the elevator as it hasn’t even opened enough yet and rushes out of the building and running down the street until he rounds the corner and stops a few feet from the diner, breathing heavily.

 _Wow_ , he thinks. _I’m so gone for him._

He composes what’s left of his dignity and slowly opens the door, hearing the little jingle of the bell on top and sees Zayn sitting on a booth by the window and he’s left breathless once again. Well, so much for being on track and field during High School.

Zayn’s looking pretty good – like always. He walks over to him and as he’s nearing, Zayn looks away from the window – probably waiting for him, no, he’s probably just admiring the view of… bicycling locals and that homeless man? – And finally sees him and the grin he gives is so big that Liam can feel his heart melting at that _smile_.

 _Fuck_ , he thinks again. _I am literally so gone for him._

“Liam, hey,” He sounds like he hasn’t fully grasped that he’s awake, judging by the half-sipped coffee in front of him means his guess might be true, “Man, I don’t even know how you can be so awake at this hour.”

“Well,” He says, sitting in front of him, “why didn’t you just sleep and just talk to me later then?” He didn’t mean to come across as rude, and he’s glad when Zayn realizes that he didn’t mean and instead, grin slyly.

“I told you, I just got back from Bradford and I’m still awake from the coffee and the drive so I thought since I wanted to talk to you then why not now?” He asks, taking another tentative sip of his coffee, sighing as he feels the hotness sliding down his throat. “Oh man, that’s good stuff.”

“Are you sure you want to talk _now_? You don’t sound coherent enough to talk.” He jokes and laughs as Zayn reaches his arm over and slaps his arm.

“Shut it, I’m perfectly coherent right now to hold a conversation.” He then proceeds to blink his eyes repeatedly as if that will shoot the sleepiness away and it must’ve worked because he’s rubbing his eyes and then grins at him. “Okay, I’m good.”

Liam nods. “Alright, what did you want to talk about?”

“Um…” He suddenly looks sad, tracing the rim of the cup in front of him. “It’s about Louis.”

He leans in a little bit, alarmed. “What happened? Is he okay?” He has to admit, besides Louis being his best friend’s crush and his crush’s best friend, he’s grown to like the guy and may even consider him a best friend of his as well so hearing Zayn sound _like this_ and about Louis has him really worried.

“Yeah, well physically,” Zayn mutters but Liam catches it and he knows he did so he sighs and continues speaking, “um… so Louis had this date with this guy from school. He’s like a DJ or something? For the school, I mean. Like, the school has a radio thing and the guy’s in it and plays songs and sometimes answers stuff, yeah, anyway so Louis had a date with the guy right?” Liam nods, letting him know he’s still hanging to every word. “And Louis’s been waiting for weeks for this date and the guy asked him before we went to America and said that once Louis gets back, they can go out but a few days after we got back, Louis called the guy and he said that he doesn’t want to see Louis anymore.” He sighs. “And it’s so fucked up because the guy didn’t even say a probable reason for it. He just said that he didn’t think it’d be cool to be with Louis, like _what the fuck does that even mean?_ And Louis just thought that the guy might not even be out yet so he’s like _yeah, I understand_ and now he’s back in Uni and you know what he sees? The guy, and he was at the campus, in the public eye and you know what he was doing? Making out with _a guy_ so Louis thought _so he’s out then?_ And it’s just. That’s all he told me so far, on the phone, before he started crying and said he’ll tell me the rest once I got home so I did.” He lets out another sigh, rubbing his face tiredly. “But he’s asleep right now so I’ll talk to him later.” He takes another sip of his coffee.

He doesn’t know what to say, really. But all he can think about is one thing so that’s what he says, and hopes that Zayn doesn’t get mad. “I thought Louis liked someone else.” Zayn looks up from where he was stirring at his coffee.

“He does, but it’s complicated. He really liked Greg and thought he could move on but I don’t think that’s happening.” He sighs, and then realizes what he just said and looks at him with widened eyes. “I didn’t say anything!” He practically shouts in the quiet diner.

“’Move on’?” Liam raises his eyebrow. “Move on from whom? I didn’t even know Louis was dating anyone, with all the flirting he’s been doing with –” He pauses and whispers, “Harry.” Finally, all the pieces are put together and he watches Zayn look at him exasperatedly. “He’s moving on from Harry? But they’re not even dating.”

“That’s the thing.” Zayn sighs. “I’ve never seen Louis this _wrecked_ for someone. I thought it was just a celebrity crush but I guess the more he got to know Harry, the more he stopped being a celebrity crush.” Just then, his phone rings and he looks at Liam, who nods at him before he grabs it and answers. “Hello? Oh hey Louis, you’re awake.” He pauses. “Uh, yeah, I’m back… well, you were asleep…”

As Zayn continues talking to Louis on the phone, he fishes out his and types a message to Harry.

_ _

And gets a reply immediately, and gets two more after his first text. 

 

He ignores them, locking his phone and looks back at Zayn as he gives Louis a goodbye before he hangs up. “Sorry,” he apologizes, “Louis called, he said he saw my bags in my room and just wanted to know where I was.” He sheepishly smiles. “He worries sometimes.”

“It’s alright,” Liam grins, “well… since he’s awake, are you…” He trails off.

“I guess so.” Zayn shrugs. “I need to comfort my best friend, right? He needs me. Allah knows how many times he’s been there for me.” He waves a waitress over and pays the check for his coffee. “Are you staying?” He asks Liam as he gives his money.

Liam shakes his head. “I just came here to talk to you, so I should go as well.” Both of them stand up and start walking out of the diner. “I’ll see you?”

Zayn nods, “Of course. I’ll just text you on what’s going to happen after, or call. Just don’t tell Harry alright?” Liam gives him a mock salute and he laughs. “Bye.” He waves as he starts walking down the street before he hails a taxi.

*********

Liam slams the door shut once he gets back to their flat. “HARRY!” He shouts through the whole flat and sees the boy peek his head from his room.

“Hi.” He greets, waving a little bit.

“What did you do?” Liam grits through his teeth as he walks over to his room. Harry squeaks and attempts to close it but Liam is faster so he gets to push it before Harry stumbles back in his bed and looks at him in fear. “Do you know what you just did?” He says, anger seeping through him.

Yes, he knows Harry more than Louis but God, is his best friend the _stupidest_ ever. What was he thinking? Ruining a possible relationship between two people who mutually liked each other just so he can be happy instead? That’s inhuman! And here he thought Harry was an absolute saint.

“I… I’m so sorry.” Harry whispers from his position on his bed. “How did you know?”

“Zayn told me!” He stretches his arms out. “And I cannot believe you did that!”

“Why are you so angry?” Harry looks at him. “It’s not like I did anything bad.”

And Liam gapes. He actually does. He’s about to _hit_ him. “Do you even realize what you just did? Right now, as we’re speaking, Zayn is driving back to his and Louis’ flat _just_ to comfort Louis because apparently, he’s been crying ever since Greg called him to say that he doesn’t want to see him.”

“What?” Harry asks, jaw dropping. “What?” He repeats. “How could he? Why would he –?”

“That’s what I wanna know as well!” Liam says again, still angry at his best friend. “I cannot believe you sabotaged what could have been a relationship!”

“’Well, it wouldn’t be one because Greg backed off.” He hears Harry mutter and he steps forward to at least rip Harry’s hair out but the boy puts his hands in front of him. “But it’s true! I didn’t even say anything!”

And at that, Liam pauses. _Wait a second, what?_ “What do you mean, you didn’t say anything?”

“Well, I did say something but I didn’t think it would cause this.” Harry explains.

“Can you please explain further before I actually hit that face of yours?” Liam asks, a bit calmer now. Harry nods and he tentatively sits beside him. “Just start from the beginning.”

“Right, remember when I told you that I would ‘take care of the Greg issue’?” Liam nods. “Well, it’s because since you guys said he works for the school’s radio station, I had my manager offer an interview for them. You know, since we found out they like to play my songs on their show and they accepted and when I met him, we got to talking and,” He sighs. “Greg seems like a swell guy for Louis, I still like Louis but I think Greg seems cool. I subtly asked him about Louis and he seemed _in to him_ , not like I am, of course but yeah, anyway and he asked if he and I were friends because of the videos you guys posted and I said we were and then when the interview started, they asked me about you guys and I don’t know what happened but I noticed something. At the part where I was talking about Louis, he seemed uncomfortable.” He shrugs. “Call me crazy but I think he did and after the interview, they played my latest single and while that, we got to talking again and he kept shifting the topic to Louis like he kept asking me what I thought about Louis and stuff like that but that’s it. That’s all we did. And after that, I took pictures with them and left. That’s it, Liam, I swear.” He frowns, noticing Liam still looking at the ground. “Li, are you mad?”

Liam furrows his eyebrows. “What was the plan out of all this then? I thought you were taking care of Greg so you can have Louis.”

Harry shrugs. “Yeah, the original plan was to get some dirt on him while on the interview, you know? See if he’s a bit of a tosser but he’s not. Then I realized if Louis will be happy with him then I am too.”

“Then what was the waffles business about? You cooked waffles! You only cook waffles when you’ve done something _incredibly_ dumb!” Liam stretches his arms out as Harry glares at him.

“I was hungry.” It was silent after that; Harry mildly offended at Liam’s comment about his waffle cooking.

Liam shakes his head at him before he turns and walks off. “You are so daft.”

*********

_ _

_ _

_ _

“LIAM!” Niall shouts from the bathroom as Liam continues to snicker and keeps on clicking ‘favorite’ on every joke he can find about Niall.

*********

“I like how most of the people who are tweeting me right now are called ‘Niall’s shit’.” Harry amusedly says as he continues to tap away on his phone.

“I don’t know if that’s a compliment or an insult.” Niall says as he plays his video games.

“It’s a compliment, Horan. Everyone wants to be your shit.” Liam giggles as he scrolls down his Instagram feed, liking posts from his friends.

Their supposedly quiet evening was interrupted by hurried knocks on their front door. Niall presses ‘pause’ on his game to look at them, “Were any of you expecting anyone?” Both Harry and Liam shake their heads. “Well, I wasn’t either.”

“I’ll get it.” Harry says eventually and stands up and walks over to the door while Niall and Liam continue what they were doing.

Soon after, they hear muffled shouting to which their pause what they were doing again and see Zayn come in, toeing off his shoes and putting them beside the couch. “The shoe closet was blocked by Harry and Louis.” He explains and flops next to Liam. “Hey you guys.”

“Uh… what are you guys doing here?” Niall asks.

“I told Louis everything and Greg explained a couple of things and now he’s mad at Harry and is shouting at him by the shoe closet.” All of them hear a thud and Liam and Niall jumps startled before hearing curses and moaning.

“Oh dear,” Liam says, finally realizing what’s happening, “oh my…”

Niall starts whooping and high fiving Zayn and grabs Liam’s hand to slap his hand against it. “I’m gonna call Jade and Perrie now, I owe them twenty.” He rolls his eyes. “Each,” he snorts, “can you believe it?” He grabs his phone.

“What do you mean?” Liam asks.

“Oh yeah, I forgot to tell you,” Niall says, looking up from his phone. “I made a bet with ‘em about Louis and Haz. I said Haz was the one who was gonna make a move, you know? Famous and all but they said it would be Louis and I guess they won.” He puts the phone on his ear. “Hello? Jade, it’s me Niall. Guess what? The next time we meet, I owe you and your girlfriend twenty _each_ – yeah! No shit, they’re making out outside right now.” He cackles. “Uh huh, Liam and Zayn are here with me.” He scoffs. “I don’t want to bet on _that_ just yet. I have to be honest, they are smart people – individually but both of them are so daft!” He ignores the glares Liam gives him as he continues speaking. “Yeah, he’s here and glared at me.” He nods. “Uh huh… well, I’ll think about it. That’s a hard thing to bet on, I’ll tell you if I’m in once we meet again.” He rolls his eyes. “Of course I won’t forget the money; I called you guys just to remind you about it.” He pauses. “Yeah, I’ll see you guys soon. Bye!” Then he hangs up.

“What’s that about?” Zayn asks, now playing with the game Niall was playing.

“Jade put me up on another bet but,” He looks at him then at Liam, “I’m not sure about it just yet.”

Zayn snorts, eyes still fixated on the television. “What do you mean? Scared you’ll lose again?”

“Nah,” Niall shakes his head. “I’m just not really sure about the duration of what I’m betting on. They’re – I mean _it’s_ pretty stupid.” He winks at Liam, who continues to glare at him.

“Excuse me,” Liam stands up from the couch. “I’m gonna get a drink.”

“Can you grab me one as well?” Zayn asks, eyes leaving the screen and smiling at Liam.

Liam feels himself breathless there for a second before he nods. He walks to the kitchen and comes back with two cans of soda and tosses one on Zayn’s lap and sits back down next to him. He stills, as Zayn nuzzles his head against his arm in thanks before going back to his game, pulling up a two player when Niall asks to play with him.

“What’s taking Louis and Harry so long?” Niall asks, pressing a few buttons on the game.

“Maybe those thuds and moaning was them actually murdering each other.” Zayn says but as he does, Louis and Harry stumble inside the living room with disheveled hair, puffy and red lips, barefooted and have the biggest and stupidest smile on their faces.

“I take it you two worked it out.” Liam says, tilting his head back to look at them.

“Yep,” Harry giggles, nuzzling his face against Louis’ cheek, who giggles at the contact and _isn’t that just the cutest?_ “I even made it Instagram official,” He pauses. “After I talked to my manager, of course, wouldn’t want a boyfriend _with_ a lawsuit, now do we?” He looks at Louis before he leads them to the loveseat beside Niall and flops there, limbs and _mouths_ tangling.

“So, this is what we’re going to see every day from now on.” Niall says. “I don’t know if I’m going to vomit or coo along with five million of Harry’s followers?”

“Well I’m doing both.” Liam says, now scrolling through his phone and laughing at the trends and tweets to him about Harry and Louis. “Oh man, you guys have got to read your fans’ tweets. These are _hilarious_! And you guys are trending in all ten spots worldwide and there’s, like, a hundred articles out now about you two.”

Harry pulls away from Louis to comment, “Well that was fast.” Before leaning in again and kissing him deeply.

“Hey,” Zayn nudges Liam and he looks over at him as he waves his unopened can of soda, “you don’t mind if I throw this at those two, right?” He jokes and both Liam and Niall burst out laughing.

As they spend the rest of the night playing video games and at one point, announcing that both Louis and Zayn stay the evening and then having a Pixar marathon, this is where Liam realizes as he looks over at Louis and Harry sobbing over the scene between the old couple in ‘ _Up_ ’ that _he wants that too_.

And as he sets his mind to that, he looks over at Zayn who’s wiping his eyes discreetly but manages to look eyes with him and breaks in to a big smile before grabbing the tissue from in front of him and wiping his tears, _he wants that with Zayn_.

*********

“ _Well, it’s cool that Harry and Louis have gotten their shit together and started dating but like all couples, they are so nauseating._ ” Liam says, fake gagging at the camera before laughing. “ _But no, seriously, they’re the cutest, right Niall?_ ” He asks, off-screen.

“ _Yup, disgusting but cute, that’s Larry Stylinson to you._ ” Niall then enters the screen, giving a thumb up before disappearing back behind the camera.

“ _Alright, next question._ ” Liam says, scrolling down his tablet. “ _Do I have an ideal person I would like to date?_ ” He hums before looking up at the camera. “ _I don’t think I do. But if you count me wanting to date someone who’s fun to be around ‘ideal’ then yeah._ ”

“ _Nah mate, I think they’re asking if you have person in mind that you want to date._ ” Niall asks then mutters. “ _Seriously, this boy does not know English at all._ ”

“ _You are the meanest person ever, seriously._ ” Liam glares at him before shaking his head and looking at the camera again. “ _Um, so like a crush? I don’t know, to be honest. I have tons of crushes and I want to date them all but –”_

The door opens and in comes Zayn, “ _Hey Liam, I was wondering – oh, you guys are doing a video, oops sorry!_ ”

Liam turns to the door and grins. “ _No Zayn it’s alright, you can come in. Come on.”_ He looks back at the camera. “ _Well, we have a surprise guest today. Surprise because I didn’t even know who let you in._ ” He says as Zayn grabs a chair and sits beside him, Niall adjusting the camera to get a shot of them both. “ _Louis and Haz are out today._ ”

“ _Oh, they’re in the living room, baking cookies. But… uh, anyway…_ ” He looks at the camera and waves. “ _Hello everyone, sorry for intruding…_ ”

“ _Oh Zayn,_ ” Liam shakes his head, “ _you could never intrude. You’re welcome to surprise us all in videos any time._ ”

Zayn laughs. “ _Well, since I’ve got your blessing then sure. What are we doing anyways?_ ”

“ _We are answering fan questions!_ ” He passes the tablet to Zayn. “ _Pick one._ ”

Zayn nods and takes it, scrolling through the questions in Liam’s notifications until he finds one. “ _Alright, I don’t wanna say this username because it’s both hard to pronounce and a really dirty word but anyway, their question is ‘if you could be a superhero, who would you be?’ oh that’s easy it’s –_ ”

“ _Iron Man._ ” Both of them say at the same time, looking at each other and then burst out laughing.

“ _Easy-peasy,_ ” Liam teases. “ _And I’m putting my two cents in since technically that question was supposed for me,_ ” He ignores the half-hearted glare Zayn throws at him. “ _I’d be Captain America since he and Iron Man are best friends and Zayn is mine._ ” He throws his arm around Zayn and grins at the camera.

Zayn grumbles and attempts pushing his face off him, “ _Ugh, personal space, Payne._ ”

“ _You are disgusting. We should just rename this video from ‘Q & A with Liam and Zayn’ to ‘Ten Minutes of Disgusting with Liam and Zayn’._” Niall says off-camera.

And the two just react by laughing before the clip cuts and another clip pops up with both Zayn and Liam already composed and answering another question.

*********

“You know it’s getting pretty annoying how you and Liam dance around each other.” Louis casually says, adding hot water on his cup.

This is the first time Zayn’s seen Louis without Harry ever since they got together because apparently Harry’s at the studio right now, writing a song ‘about how much I love my Lou which is also a surprise’ so Louis isn’t allowed to come with him. Right now, he’s mixing a box of some herbal tea Harry bought for him and Zayn can tell how much Louis loves Harry because damn it, he is so serious about his Yorkshire that he once threatened to throw Zayn off the window when he suggested they buy another brand of tea.

“Liam and I don’t dance.” Zayn jokes as he continues to draw on his sketchbook. “We’re pretty shitty dancers.”

“That’s the worst joke I’ve ever heard.” Louis says with his back still turned to him. “And I’m dating Harry Styles.”

“Yeah, I’m quite aware with the constant PDA I keep seeing on a daily basis now, thank you very much.” He looks back down on his sketch of a picture he took of Liam the other day when the five of them decided to go to the park. They had a game of footie with Niall and Liam versus him and Louis and Harry as the cheerleader and scorer. While they took a break, Liam decided to play around the ball by bouncing it off his knee and foot and Zayn decided to take a picture of him.

“Anyway,” Louis drags out, turning to him with his cup of tea and then sitting on the chair across from him, “I meant to say is that you two really need to stop with the pining. If my public display of undying _mutual_ love for Harry is disgusting, you should see yourselves. It’s ten times worse.” He takes a sip of his tea and hums. “Not bad.” He looks at him again. “Also, I totally think you’re drawing Liam on your little sketchbook right now.”

Zayn curls his arm protectively around his sketchbook and puts it towards his chest. “I – I… I’m _not_!” He splutters.

“Stop denying it,” Louis rolls his eyes. “I know you are. I can see you smiling earlier.” Zayn loosens his hold on his sketchbook. “And really Zayn, you should do something about that thing with Liam you have.”

“There’s nothing going on with me and him.” He says, looking back down on his sketch.

“But you want something to happen.” Louis points out.

“ _No_ , I don’t want anything happening to us except friendship.” He assures Louis, and probably himself.

“Are you even hearing yourself right now?” Louis practically shouts and Zayn’s about to retort when Louis holds his hand up. “Don’t answer that or I might have to threaten in throwing you out the window again.” He puts his hand down and sighs. “The point here is: you like Liam. And obviously, he feels the same way. So what’s stopping you?”

They both stare at each other and Zayn thinks about it. He’s not blind, well he tries to be. He can feel and _see_ all the touches, the gazes and the little things Liam does. But _it’s too much of a risk_. It’s been a while since he had someone and this isn’t like another tragic story where he and that person ended on the wrong foot, no, he thinks he and that person are on good terms (well, the last conversation they had was a year ago when that person came to get their stuff from the flat but they didn’t curse each other out and he’s heard that person is seeing someone new so) but it’s been so long, alright?

And what if this doesn’t work out with Liam?

He actually likes Liam; as a friend, as a fellow YouTuber, as _anything_. And he likes him _a lot_. And the question is still in his mind, _what if this doesn’t work out?_ What happens then? Will they still remain friends? Will they slowly drift apart and realize how awkward it is and Louis and Harry have to divide their time on hanging out with whom?

It’s… he doesn’t want to risk that.

“I don’t wanna talk about this. I…” And suddenly, his phone alarms. _Right, I’m supposed to meet Liam today._ He looks at Louis, who just quirks a brow and he rolls his eyes and stands up from his seat. “I have to go.” And then shoves his sketchbook and pencil inside his bag before leaving the flat, ignoring whatever Louis shouted at him on the way out. Something about condoms, he didn’t really listen.

Earlier, Liam texted him about if he wants to meet at this restaurant because he had something to tell him and he agreed to it but he had to go at a later time since Liam went somewhere for a “meeting”, whatever that meant. He doesn’t think about it on the way over. _There’s nothing to even think about,_ he thinks. _Liam and I are friends, that’s it. That’s all we’ll ever be._

And as he enters the restaurant after rereading the text Liam sent him about where it is, he sees him. He’s sitting by the window, a place in eateries he knows Zayn likes. _That’s nothing. All of my friends know I like eating there and who doesn’t love eating beside the window? The view is great._

He looks up from gazing at his phone and sees him and breaks in to a huge grin that Zayn’s pretty sure has got his heart racing and knees about to give up. _I’ve sat in that chair for so long earlier, the numbness must’ve caught up to me. Yeah, that’s it._

“Hey, you’re late.” Liam teases when he takes a seat. He’s glad the restaurant isn’t entirely formal although he can see a bunch of well-dressed people having lunch but he finds comfort in Liam, who’s in front of him wearing a blue shirt and green and black plaid long-sleeve wrapped around his waist and a pair of black jeans he vaguely remembers Liam complaining about Harry buying for him that is _so tight_ but still wears it because Harry gave it.

“Sorry…” he apologizes, trying to calm his nerves. _Damn it Louis._ He looks at Liam and notices the confusion on his face and he panics because _did I do something? Is it something I said? Does he see right through me and know I feel something for him as he might for me?_ He shakes all of those thoughts and focuses on what’s in front of him which is, both fortunately and unfortunately, Liam. “So you wanted to tell me something?” And that brings back the big smile and what he _swears_ he sees light in Liam’s eyes.

Liam nods, “Yeah!” He places his hands flat on the table and Zayn waits. “I just got a letter from YouTube last night and they told me something _really_ amazing you know what they told me?” Zayn raises a brow in question. “I got a plaque!” Zayn’s mouth slowly drops because _what_ – “Because I just reached a million subscribers!” He exclaims, his grin growing possibly bigger and before he knows it, his face is also breaking out with a huge grin and he’s grasping Liam’s hand.

“What the fuck?” He laughs. “Seriously Liam, that’s amazing!” Without warning, he pulls Liam forward and hugs him and he doesn’t even give a shit that they’re in a restaurant and hugging in a very uncomfortable position. He’s happy for Liam, alright? He deserves this. He then pulls away and both of them still have similar grins on their faces.

“Yeah,” Liam nods, finally sobering up to _all of this._ “I wanted to tell you this personally because you’ve been a part of this, Zayn. And I wanted to thank you for being there for me, which is why, you are invited to this party Harry is holding up for me.” He rolls his eyes playfully. “It’s uncalled for, obviously, but Harry wanted to show how much he’s happy for me. And don’t worry about Louis, I’m pretty Harry is calling him now and telling him all about it.”

And he’s been smiling since he saw Liam and while talking to him but now, hearing all of this, he can feel his face hurting from _smiling too much_ and he doesn’t even care. Because damn it, Liam – _Liam just got something so important to him from all the hard work he’s done_ and instead of keeping it all to himself, he’s thanking everyone involved in making this happen and that’s just so _Liam_. God, he can’t even find words on to explain how he feels about Liam right now.

He doesn’t even know what to say, really. “You’re a great person, Li.” Is what he does end up saying, and he knows it’s not much, to him anyways, but he hopes Liam can feel how thankful he is as well for him – for meeting him, for being his friend, for _existing_ no less.

And if he looks ridiculous smiling like a total goof, you should see how Liam is. His cheeks are flush and he ducks his head, a wide grin, probably bigger than the one he had earlier, on his face. “Zayn, that’s… no… I…” He shakes his head and looks up. “Just… thank you, Zayn.” Now it was his turn to duck his head.

It was then that their moment was cut off when a waitress comes forward and offers menus and they order. They spent the entirety of lunch conversing and Zayn remembers their breakfast back at the diner, except he’s not stressing out about Louis, and he also remembers their lunch at the diner back in America during the convention, except this time they know a lot about each other.

And he feels warm inside.

The fact he’s known Liam, even though it’s been a few months, he feels like he’s known Liam for a much longer time and would like to know him longer than this and he doesn’t even care if this turns in to something more or if they stay friends, just knowing he’s _there_ for Liam and Liam for him is enough.

But he can’t shake the feeling inside of him that he wants _more_ and he knows, for a fact, that Liam feels the same way as well. But he doesn’t know. He doesn’t know how to approach this. Sure, there’s a high possibility that Liam likes him as much as he likes him but the danger and sake of their friendship is still nagging at the back of his head and he _wants_ to take the risk – but what if Liam doesn’t? What if he’s content staying like this? What if he knows it’ll never work out? And he’s doing what’s best.

But then he thinks, _no… the both of us will never know unless we try._

And that’s how he concludes a plan.

*********

_ _

Maybe it’s because Harry’s finally warmed up to the celebrity life, or maybe because their flat is a bit small, or maybe because the rooftop of their flat building is reserved for a baby shower tonight but somehow either of the three causes them to all end up partying at this abandoned warehouse for Liam.

“I’m supposed to ask how you found this place,” Liam tells Harry once he sees him, “but I’m having too much fun and I’m a little drunk to ask.”

Harry laughs and pats his back. “That’s my boy! I’m glad you’re having fun then.” He spots something behind him and he grins. “Excuse me, I just saw _my boy_ so I have to leave you now.” He pats Liam’s cheek lightly before sauntering over to Louis as Liam watches him, laughing to himself and at his best friend.

And through the loud music being played and the dancing bodies squeezing beside him, he still felt the hand that wraps around his wrist and the, “Hi.” And turns around and sees Zayn, looking amazing as ever.

“Hey!” He draws out the last letter, drawing Zayn in for a tight hug and startling the boy, who slowly hugs him back. He pulls away and smiles. “I’m so glad you’re here, Zaynie.” He tells him. He can feel his tongue getting heavy with every word he says and he looks down at his glass of beer and decides that _yeah, maybe I should sober up if I wanna enjoy this party_ so he puts the glass down on one of the tables and turns his attention to Zayn.

“Li, are you drunk?” Zayn asks with an amused brow up.

He lifts his hand up and slightly makes an ‘okay’ sign. “A little bit.”

Zayn shakes his head but Liam knows he’s amused by all of this before grabbing his wrist again and pulling him towards the make-shift bar and calls over the bartender they hired. “A glass of water, please.” He ignores the confused and surprised look from the bartender who gives him a glass of water before he gives it to Liam. “Drink it.” Liam shakes his head like a little kid and he shoves it a little closer. “Come on, Liam. Drink it.” Liam sighs and takes it, drinking just half of it. As he does, he feels himself sobering up a little bit and then downs the rest of it.

“Wanna dance?” He asks when he places the empty glass on the table.

Zayn gives him an amused look. “Are you sure you’re not going to puke on me?”

Liam laughs. “I’m sure.” And Zayn lets himself be led to the dance floor.

They’ve been dancing for a while now, and Zayn has to admit he’s surprised he even  lasted this long since he’s not really fond of dancing especially with someone he  likes but he’s having fun and he’s sure Liam is too and that’s how he notices their close proximity and then steps forward until they’re basically chest to chest.

This is it.

He looks at Liam and notices the boy stills and is looking at him as well. Despite the loud music, he can feel and hear Liam’s ragged breathing and before long, Liam leans in and –

“Alright, let’s invite the whole reason we’re even having this party! To congratulate him on his one million subscribers and more to come, let’s call up Liam Payne on the stage!” The DJ shouts through the microphone and everyone looks at Liam, who immediately pulls away, startled by his actions as everyone around them starts clapping and people near them are slightly pushing him towards the stage. “Come on up here, Payne!”

Liam smiles at them before he looks back at Zayn and then walks towards the stage and grabs the microphone. “Hi everyone thanks for coming…”

Zayn sighs as Liam continues to thank everyone and looks around the crowd and spots Niall and Louis sitting in a booth and looking at him with matching frowns on their faces. He frowns as well before putting his attention back to Liam as he thanks everyone again before everyone starts clapping and goes down the stage as the music continues.

**Plan One: FAILED**

*********

_ _

_ _

_ _

_ _

So he has to admit, maybe planning on kissing Liam spontaneously at his celebration party wasn’t a good plan (but he isn’t telling Louis that since that little shit is smug as fuck) so he decides to come up with another and more practical and maybe a bit more respectful plan (even though he was originally planning on asking Liam if he could kiss him).

And since Liam likes simplicity, he decided to go with the practical and _slightly_ overrated plan: asking him out on a date to a restaurant.

Okay, maybe he should really stop calling these things “plans” when they’re just turning out mundane and such.

But anyway, he’s going up the elevator in the building where Liam’s flat is at. He’s walking down the hall towards his, Harry and Niall’s flat when the door opens and out comes a girl. A really pretty girl with blonde hair and wearing a floral dress and walking after her is Liam. He stops in his tracks as he watches Liam and the girl talk by the door before the girl says, “Alright, so I need to really get going. Unlike you and Haz, I actually have a Uni life and I’ve got a shit ton of work I have to do. Tell ‘em to call me, yeah?” Liam nods and then the girl reaches up to plant a kiss on his cheek before pulling away. “Bye Li.” And as she turns to walk down the hall towards the elevator, she spots Zayn, standing there in the middle of the hallway.

And now she’s not the only one who’s noticed.

Liam’s eyes rise up. “Zayn, what are you doing here?”

“Um…” Zayn’s eyes flick over to Liam then to the girl then back to Liam. “I was wondering if… you wanted to hang out. But it seems you’re a bit busy.”

“Oh no worries,” The girl speaks up, waving a dismissive hand at him. “I was just leaving. You guys have all the time in the world to do _whatever_ you want.” She says it, in a teasing tone that has both boys blushing. She walks over to Zayn until she’s in front of him and places her hand out. “I’m Gemma, by the way. Harry’s sister.”

_Liam’s dating Harry’s sister._

“I’m Zayn.” He introduces himself, shaking her hand. “Liam’s… friend.” He eventually says.

_Oh God, but Harry knows I like Liam. Why would he set him up with his sister when –_

“I really have to go.” She says and hurries down the hallway. “Bye Liam! Nice meeting you Zayn!” She says, not turning her back and she walks towards the elevator.

Zayn watches her leave then turns back to Liam, who’s still staring at him by the door. Not a second too long, he snaps out of it and gestures inside. “Come in.” Zayn nods and walks after him, closing the door behind him.

He’s surprised to see Niall and Harry in the living room as well with Niall sleeping with a guitar on his stomach and Harry on his phone, probably texting his manager, a friend or Louis. Harry looks up when the door closes and smiles widely when he sees Zayn.

“Hey Zayn, I didn’t know you were here.” Harry casually says, knowing about his plan – of course, _Louis_ – and how he’s on board with this one hundred percent but then again why is… _his sister_?

“Yeah, I just saw him when I was showing Gemma out.” Liam explains, flopping next to the Zayn when he takes a seat. He gestures to the six pack of beer on the table and Zayn leans over to grab one and opens it.

He takes a sip, eyes on Harry, who raises his eyebrow before his eyes widen and he shakes his head in disbelief, muttering a curse under his breath before he looks back at them and grins widely. “Oh, Gemma, my _sister_ also known as my _sister_ who will _never_ date any of these buffoons I call my friends and because my _sister_ already has a _boyfriend of her own_? Is that the Gemma we’re talking about?” After that, the living room falls in to silence.

Before Liam bursts out laughing, “Oh come on, Styles. Niall’s already asleep. Besides he just said Gemma’s a pretty girl, there’s no harm in it.”

Harry continues to glare at Zayn before he turns back to Liam and gives a firm nod. “You’re right. I shouldn’t really jump in to conclusions,” he looks back at Zayn, “so much.”

“Um… I should go.” Zayn says, standing up. “I forgot that I had this thing I need to do.” He looks at Liam, who looks at him as if he’s hurt _which he isn’t, goodness Zayn._ “I’ll come back another time.” He tells them all before he hurries out of the flat, groaning all the way to the elevator.

_I am such an idiot._

Not only did he just blatantly assume Liam was dating someone, that _someone_ is Harry’s sister and he just thinks that he might’ve offended Harry – for thinking he would let his sister and his best friend date or for being stupid, he doesn’t know.

**Plan Two: FAILED**

Okay, seriously, he needs to stop calling these ‘plans’.

*********

_ _

“Maybe I should just go to him and just ask him out, you know?”

Louis snorts. “Now where’s the fun in that then?”

Zayn raises his eyebrow. “The fun is everywhere. I mean, I’m asking him out and if he says ‘yes’ then we’ll both be happy and have fun.”

Louis shrugs. “Yeah, but you _like_ Liam – like, _like, like_ him so I think it’d be best if you did something spontaneous so he’ll know you’re serious about wanting to date him.”

Zayn rolls his eyes. “Christ, Lou, I’m just asking the guy out on a date. I’m not proposing.”

“But in the future you might want to!” Louis defends himself. “I may not be a fortune teller but I can tell that Liam’s going to be with you for a _very_ long time.”

“I’m scared that by you saying that, you’re jinxing it.” He says but is ignored a dismissive wave of a hand.

Louis leans forward in his seat. “So, what’s phase three then?” Zayn opens his mouth to speak but he holds up his hand. “And I’m not talking about something _mundane_ as _just_ asking him out, okay? I need something _more_! Spontaneous, Zayn! That’s what we’re aiming for here and I don’t care if it’s just ‘asking him out on a date’ this needs to be amazing!”

Zayn narrows his eyebrows at him. “Fine then, if you’re so persistent on wanting what’s best for him, why don’t _you_ ask him out then?”

Louis groans. “Gross. Liam is, like, a brother to me now. Like, yeah, he may be hot – I’m not blind but, come on, besides him being not my type, he’s yours and Harry’s mine.” He claps his hands together. “Now, come on, enough about me. Let’s hear your next plan.”

“There’s –” Just then, there’s a knock on the door and both Louis and Zayn exchange a look before Zayn stands up and walks over to the door and opens it, seeing Liam standing outside, looking flushed and tired. His eyes widen. “Oh, hey Liam, hi… I didn’t expect you to come here. What are you –?”

Liam cuts him off. “I like you.” He blurts out. “A lot, actually. I’m still thinking about whether or not is this love but either way, I just have really strong affections for you and I’m not blind, alright? I’m a bit slow on things but I know when someone’s interested in me or not and I think you feel the same thing for me as well.” He pauses, seeing the shocked look on Zayn’s face. “Or not, I’m not really sure. You’re kind of giving me mixed signals here.” He chuckles lightly; reaching up to rub the back of his neck and making him look all boyish.

“Now that,” Louis speaks up from behind Zayn. In all honesty, he actually forgot his friend was even there, “is spontaneous.”

“Um… I…” Liam sighs. “I hope no matter what you feel about this, about _us_ doesn’t change our friendship.”

“Do you wanna go out?” Zayn suddenly blurts out then clears his throat. “Like, this weekend? Say Saturday at eight?” He quickly backtracks. “I’m not saying this to save you from being hurt or anything besides that, alright? I actually like you as well and I feel the same about _everything_ you’ve said except I know you actually like me and these past few days I’ve been trying to confess and ask you out but…” He grins. “It seems like you beat me to it.”

Now it was Liam’s turn to be surprised. “Uh…”

“Liam, dear, I think the answer you’re looking for is ‘yes’.” Louis shouts from the couch.

Liam swallows and nods. “Yeah… I mean, yes. Um, they’re the same thing.” He chuckles and Zayn just finds him _so adorable_. “But yeah, I’ll go out with you this weekend.”

Zayn grins. “Alright, I’ll… uh… do you want to come in?” He gestures to the inside of his flat.

Liam shakes his head. “Um… I have somewhere else to be. Niall’s waiting downstairs for me, actually.”

Zayn’s grin still doesn’t falter as he nods. “Okay, so… we’re on for Saturday, yeah?” He confirms.

Liam nods. “Of course, wouldn’t miss it for anything.” He smiles before turning around and leaving.

“Well,” Louis says as he turns back around and closes the door behind him, “that was unexpected. But at least it got the job done.” He smugly says.

“Yeah…” Zayn frowns.

“What’s wrong?” Louis asks, suddenly becoming worried.

Zayn looks at him. “What am I gonna wear?”

He dodges the shoe Louis throws at him.

*********

Needless to say, Zayn thinks his date with Liam went well – great, even – if you count how Liam currently has him pressed against the door of his flat and kissing him deeply and slowly as it is.

Liam pulls away from his lips, long enough to start trailing kisses down his neck. Zayn tilts his neck, allowing excessive access. _God, that feels so good._ As Liam continues to devour his neck with nips, bites and kisses, he starts to run his hands down Liam’s _tight fitted shirt_ (and he thought he was the one who had to control himself all night) and places them underneath it, feeling the rough skin and bumps of his abs.

Oh man, if this goes the way he wants it to, he’s going to have the best time of his life.

Liam continues devouring his neck then he asks. “Is anybody home besides us?”

Zayn shakes his head, releasing a moan before ‘normally’ answering with a, “No. Uh – _ah_ … Louis’s at the studio with Harry, _fuck_.” He trails his hand up, gripping Liam’s hair tightly, moaning out loud when Liam bites _hard_ on his neck, his head tilting back and his eyes fluttering close. “ _Fuck,_ can… can – we…” He reluctantly pushes Liam away, almost coming at the sight of him – hair disheveled, lips red and wet and _obscene_ – before he regains slight control and says with a leveled voice. “Can we take this somewhere else? I don’t really think fucking against the door is very comfortable.”

Liam nods. “Alright… the wall then…”

Zayn’s eyes widen. “Wait, what?” He splutters. Because _damn_ , that was _not_ what he was expecting to hear. But nonetheless, he shakes his head. “No… I –” _we can save that for another time_ and thinks Liam’s thinking the same but he still continues. “I was thinking maybe the bedroom – a bit more comfortable.”

Liam nods again. “Alright,” He stalks towards him and before he can ask what he’s about to do, he’s lifted up by the waist and he immediately wraps his legs around Liam’s waist and his arms around his neck, “let’s go, shall we?” He grins and kisses him deeply again. _Goodness, he doesn’t think he’ll ever get tired of Liam’s kisses_ before he’s led to the bedroom after he points out which one is it.

As Liam starts walking towards the bedroom, he decides to mess with him a little bit. After all, Liam’s been a tease all night thus far – playing footsie under the table, running his hand down his thigh while they watched the new Avengers film (he shouldn’t have chosen the more secluded part of the theater) and kissing him for the first time in front of a store window while window shopping and then _this_. So, he leans in and starts nipping Liam’s neck – kind of like he was doing to him earlier – and it works, making him falter in his steps and almost dropping Zayn.

He laughs against his neck, muttering a, “revenge, sucker” before continuing the task at hand. Liam moans once in a while before he reaches Zayn’s bedroom and twists the door knob and pushing it forcefully before running head first on at the bed and dropping him on it then hovering over him.

“Hi.” Liam greets, grinning all boyishly and innocently and not like the lust-driven male earlier back at his front door and during his date.

“Hi.” He greets back before pulling him down and kissing him, pushing his tongue inside and eliciting a moan from both of them as Liam returns the favor. He feels the roughness of Liam’s hand run down his sides before gripping his thighs and pulling them even closer around his waist and then gripping his ass tight.

Zayn pulls away and moans, “Take it off.” He grips Liam’s shirt and runs his hand down the ends of his shirt and takes his shirt off, groaning at the sight of his ripped body. He sits up and lets Liam do the same to his shirt and as he throws both of their shirts away, he leans back down on the bed and lets Liam continue kissing him.

He’s been hard for some time now, basically ever since he picked Liam up at his flat, looking all delectable and fuckable. And now, knowing what’s about to happen for the rest of his night – he doesn’t even know if he can take it much longer. So he doesn’t wait anymore and places his hand at the waistline of Liam’s jeans and thumbs the button before opening and unzipping his jeans.

Liam notices what he’s done and pulls away from him completely as he takes the rest of his jeans off and kicking them off of his legs then hovering over him again and flicking the button and zipper open before he grips both his boxers and jeans and pulling them both at once as he moans at the feel of the cool breeze against his legs and the way his cock bobs against his stomach.

“C’mere.” He whispers to Liam and the boy obeys.

Liam towers over his lower half, giving him a glance before leaning down and placing a kiss on his inner thigh. He closes his eyes and lets out a ragged breath and as he opens his eyes again, that’s where he’s noticed that he’s spread his legs wider and Liam’s continuing to place kissing on both his thighs.

“You’re so beautiful.” Liam murmurs against his skin and he doesn’t think his heart can burst anymore like this and he can’t even return the sentiment because _goodness_ , Liam’s still trailing kisses up and his thighs and has move on from kissing his navel and the skin around his cock – just avoiding touching his cock overall and he’s such a tease but they both know that Zayn loves it; it’s there in the way his breath hitches and the way he reaches to grip Liam’s hair again as he throws his head back and moans as Liam starts nosing his thighs instead.

And he feels like he won’t get tired of this _ever_.

“Just…” _fucking suck me_ and he swears Liam has psychic powers because before he can even finish, or at least attempt to say the sentence, he’s got Liam’s _sinful_ lips sucking the head of his cock and if that wasn’t bad enough, Liam’s eyes are trained on him _and_ if he wasn’t so busy trying not to come at the sight of his cock on Liam’s mouth, he could have _sworn_ Liam’s smiling.

Liam slowly and painfully – on Zayn’s part that is – goes down on him, sliding his mouth down half the length of his cock while his hand is occupied on the other half. And Zayn can feel the heat of Liam’s mouth around him and if he doesn’t take this off, he’s not going to regret coming down his throat. Liam starts bobbing his head up and down on Zayn’s cock, eyes flickering back to look at him and since his mouth is occupied ( _ha!_ ), his eyebrows and eyes are doing the talking.

He raises a brow and his eyes look back down at what he’s doing then back at Zayn as if to ask _so are you enjoying this?_ Zayn nods quickly and Liam winks at him _thought so._

Zayn runs his hands on his hair, slowly gripping it again on his hand and then running it back again until Liam’s hair makes him look like he got himself electrocuted. Liam slowly pulls his mouth away, a pop sound eliciting as he completely pulls off and if he looked obscene just by them making out, he doesn’t know how to describe how Liam looks right now – cheeks flushed, lips redder and puffier and _wetter_ than they were earlier.

And Zayn needs… _needs_ to be fucked by him right now.

And that’s what he says. “Fuck me,” He commands although it sounds like pleading, a breathless plead that has Liam grinning at him, “ _Please_ Liam.” He begs.

“Alright,” and _fuck_ , his voice – it’s so raspy as if… as if… _as if he just got a cock shoved in his throat_ , “where’s the lube?” He asks and Zayn tilts his head to his nightstand where Liam climbs over him and then reaches over to open the first drawer where he fishes out a bottle of lube and a condom and as he lays it down beside Zayn, he grabs his wrist which catches Liam’s attention.

“I’m clean.”

“Me too… so,” He waves the condom and Zayn looks down shyly. He places it beside the lube and tilts his chin up, “hey, what’s wrong?”

Zayn shakes his head. “Nothing… I just… I want us to not use a condom, if that’s alright? Or… are you…?” He trails off but then scrambles to speak again. “Because if you want – it’s alright by me – if that’s what you’re used to and –” He silenced by Liam’s lips.

Liam pulls away, “Hey, I’m alright with whatever you want. If you want to use a condom, if you don’t want to use a condom, if you wanna stop –”

Now it’s Zayn’s turn to cut him off, shaking his head. “Oh God no, I don’t wanna stop.” Liam laughs. “I just…”

“Just nothing,” Liam sighs, “I’m alright with not using a condom, are you?” Zayn nods. “Well, there we go.” He picks the condom back again and puts it back in the drawer before looming over him again. “Besides,” He leans down, their face inches from each other, “I’d like to say our first time is where I’ve felt all of you.” He breathes, before he plants a chaste kiss on his lips that still has Zayn feeling like he’s on cloud nine.

He scoots down by his legs and nudges his legs and he spreads them. Liam kneels in between his legs and slathers his fingers with lube before nudging them by the rim, earning a ragged breath from Zayn. “Fuck.” He chokes out as Liam slowly pushes his finger inside and then pulls out again until he can slowly place them inside. He senses the tension in Zayn’s body and starts moving his fingers in and out and crooking them inside, eventually easing the tension off his body as he moans out for him to finger him _faster_ and _harder_.

Liam curls his fingers one more time before adding another finger, and he watches Zayn arching his back and moaning loudly, grasping the sheets for leverage, _anything_ to make him feel like he’s not going to float away from the pleasure of Liam’s fingers inside him.

When he makes sure Zayn’s good, he slowly pulls his fingers out. Zayn opens his eyes, not realizing he’s closed them, eye glazed and smiling lazily at Liam. _Fuck_ , if this is him with fingers up his ass, imagine what he’d be like once he’s got a cock inside him or came afterwards? Goodness, just the thought of it is making Liam want to come so hard right now.

Liam quickly grabs the lube and places it beside him. He makes eye contact with Zayn, who’s watching his every move, and smirks as he slowly takes his boxers off, sliding them down and throwing them away and watches as Zayn’s Adam’s apple bobs to the sight of how hard and big Liam’s cock is, standing at full attention with pre-come coming out of the slit. Liam grabs the lube and smears a good amount of his hand and lathers his cock fully, moaning at the feel of his hand on his cock while making eye contact with Zayn, his pre-come already pooling at his stomach.

“Ready?” He asks after he finishes and then hovers over Zayn’s body. Zayn nods eagerly and he has to laugh at that. He grips his cock and slowly pushes inside him, watching how Zayn’s eyes slowly close and his mouth slowly drops open as he feels like Liam’s cock slowly breaking him in half.

Once Liam bottoms out, he leans down and starts kissing up Zayn’s neck. Zayn brings his hand up to his hair, gripping it and then smoothing it out and kissing and nipping his ear softly. “Fuck, I feel so full.” He mutters. “You better move now or I’m getting myself off on my own.” He threatens light-heartedly.

Liam pulls away from his neck and smiling boyishly and Zayn’s heart flutters at how pure Liam looks – until he starts rolling his hips and he has to tilts his head back at the immense amount of pleasure coiling on his stomach when Liam continues to roll his hips and then eventually amps it faster and then soon keeps an even pace or pulls out slow and pushes in hard and fast.

“Fuck, fuck, fuck, _fuck_ Liam!” Zayn keeps moaning out as Liam rams inside him hard and fast, feeling his body moving forward but not hitting the headboard just yet and only hearing the sound of their moans, curses, and skin slapping against skin. He wraps his legs tightly around his waist and grips his shoulders for leverage.

“ _Ah_ , oh god Zayn, I’m so close.” Liam huffs and he shouts, feeling his orgasm seep through inside Zayn. He continues push in hard and fast until Zayn arches his back and then come spills across his stomach and some on his chin. That sight alone has Liam shouting and coming inside Zayn, both of them moaning at the feel of Liam’s hot come inside him.

Liam leans down and licks the come off his chin before kissing him slow and sweet and then finally pulling out, moaning at the sight of his come seeping out of Zayn’s ruined hole.

He looks at Zayn and meets his eyes before looking back down at his messy ass hole and then looking back at Zayn again and then says, “Next time.” That has Zayn feeling like he’s going to get hard again before he stands up and walks to the bathroom and grabs a damp cloth and starts cleaning both of them up. He finds Zayn’s pants nearest of the bed and places the cloth there. He sees Zayn getting himself underneath the blankets before he does the same and spoons him.

“Wait.” Zayn says before turning around and facing him and grinning. “I’m too sore and if I feel your dick against my ass now I won’t hesitate to ride you.”

Liam hums and cups his face, giving him another kiss. “Sounds tempting but like you said, you’re sore and I’m sleepy so maybe… tomorrow?”

Zayn seems to consider this before snuggling up to him. “Can ‘next time’ be tomorrow?” Liam nods before he grins and plants another kiss on his lips and then lays his head down on his chest before both of them drift to sleep.

*********

_ _

_ _

_ _

_ _

_ _

_ _

“As much I found your little debate with Niall absolutely hilarious,” Harry says as he wraps his arm around Louis. “I’ve been told by my manager, and Niall, for you to take back what you said because people won’t stop sending Niall nudes.”

Louis sighs and fishes out his phone again, “Alright.”

“Thank you!” Niall shouts from his bedroom.

The front door suddenly opens and Liam and Zayn walk in. “Well, well, well.” Louis pipes from the couch. “If it isn’t our favorite couple at the moment, I take it your date went well.” He suddenly notices the limp Zayn is doing as he walks to the couch opposite them. “ _Very_ well, I take it.”

“Shut up.” Zayn rolls his eyes as he flops on the couch. “I didn’t make a comment when I found beads, a dildo, a vibrator and a butt –”

“Okay, I get it!” Louis stops him, ignoring the incredulous look Harry gives him and the whispered ‘I thought I told you to hide them afterwards’.

“But to answer your first question,” Liam pauses, “that wasn’t really a question as I think about it – yeah, the date went well.” He walks to the kitchen and minutes later, comes out with two cups of coffee and places them in front of him and Zayn. “So, what’d you guys do while we were gone?”

“We had a threesome.” Louis answers as he starts typing a half-assed apology on his phone.

“Okay,” Liam draws out, “someone’s already being too vile even though it’s ten in the morning.”

Zayn shrugs. “Harry probably didn’t eat him out last night.” And takes a sip of his coffee and also manages to dodge the pillow Louis throws at him.

*********** **

“ _So, another perks of having a very famous best friend,_ ” Liam says, donning a pair of sunglasses and then taking a full shot of his view of the beach from the balcony, “ _you get to come with during his world tours. Right now, we are here in Amsterdam. Louis really loves it here._ ”

“ _True that!_ ” Louis shouts off-screen. Liam moves the camera from the balcony shot and walks inside his hotel room where he focuses the camera on Louis and Zayn, on the bed, lying on their stomachs and playing Mario Kart.

“ _I’m gonna beat your ass._ ” Zayn shouts.

“ _Oh honey, my ass already gets –_ ” Louis looks at the camera before looking back at the television screen. “ _Anyway, I’m beating yours first._ ”

But obviously he doesn’t as Zayn beats him in the game and he starts jumping on the bed, screaming and whooping. “ _I won! I won! I won!_ ” And then flops next to Louis and starts poking him, making the boy laugh. “ _I won, you lost! Whose ass is beaten now, huh?_ ”

The video cuts off to an empty arena. “ _Look at this place…_ ” Liam says behind the camera as he does a panorama shot of the whole arena, including the empty seats. He takes a shot of Zayn shooting the whole arena as well. “ _So this is where Harry is performing at tomorrow night and the lads and I thought of doing something before he goes to practice his set._ ”

The video cuts off again and it’s now a shot from someone seated on the audience and it’s a shot of the five boys, all dressed in bathrobes, on the stage, singing and dancing. “ _Please tell me you people never wanted to dance in a bathrobe on a stage in a huge ass arena!_ ” Liam says in the voice over as the scene shoots all of five of them skidding across the stage, yelling and singing.

The video cuts again and it’s a shot of Harry singing on stage to ‘Happily’ as the audience starts cheering and singing along with Louis’ singing and yelling rivaling all of them. “ _’Cause we’re on fire, we are on fire, we’re on fire now!_ ” He sings along to Harry. “ _I love you Harry Styles!_ ” He shouts and Harry is seen grinning at him as he does the guitar solo.

The video then lastly cuts to all five boys lying on the couch, Liam holding the camera and making it face them. “ _So, that was a great concert from the one and only, Harry Styles, don’t you agree lads?_ ” The three boys fist pump and whoop in agreement as Harry just laughs and leans his head on Louis’ shoulder, eyes on the television. “ _I think this is all the time we have, I guess. I’m beat and I think the lads are too._ ” Niall proves it by throwing popcorn on the camera. “ _So, I’ll see you guys next week with a new video of hopefully that cover with Zayn I’m planning._ ”

“ _Ugh_ ,” Zayn groans, “ _Liam, no._ ” He whines.

Liam just chuckles at him before facing the camera, “ _He’s gonna agree soon. Don’t worry._ ” He winks and then waves before the video cuts to black.

“You are such a dick.” Zayn says half-heartedly. “How do you know I’m even gonna agree to this?”

Liam shrugs with his one shoulder as he sets his camera down, “Because you love me.” He teases, making kissy faces and then leaning to pepper his face with kisses that has Zayn giggling.

“Ugh, gross!” Niall gags and then yelps when Zayn hits him in the back of his head.

“Someone call Josh so he can solve Niall’s blue balls!” Zayn says with Louis laughing and diving to grab Niall’s phone.

“Hey!” Niall shouts as he sees Louis with his phone. “What are you doing?” And then tries to grab his phone back.

“Gonna call Josh to tell him about your love for him!” Louis teases as he tries scrolling through Niall’s contacts.

“No!” Niall whines, trying to grab his phone while Harry and Zayn pull him back.

Liam watches his friends, seeing how they all got together just because of their love for making videos and making others happy and throughout all that, they all found each other and made each other happy and importantly, Liam found Zayn, who’s not only shared his love for video making but is also his happiness.

*********

_ _

_ _

**Author's Note:**

> follow me on [tumblr](http://halleluzayn.tumblr.com/) y'all.


End file.
